This begins to gather a little momentum as it moves into the second half of the narrative, but generally the plot moves at a glacial pace and by the end of it you don't really feel that a great deal has happened, given the novel's length. What's more the language is interminable. Conrad's prose is delivered through enormously clunky run on sentences and half of it comes in the form of subordinate clauses. I get that this is, to some extent, simply a reflection of the literary conventions of the time, but here these qualities feel down-right egregious! Many reviewers here talk of the extraordinary psychological depth of the work, but I just don't see it. The characters feel largely like archetypes to me and their actions don't seem to spring from any really developed characterisation at all.

Interesting in parts, but over all a frustratingly written and unsatisfying piece of work which does little to merit its considerable literary reputation.