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Tales of Unrest — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian First published 1898

Tales of Unrest

by Joseph Conrad 1857–1924

The book, and the century it came out of.

Five early stories of men posted where the empire runs out: a Dutch trader married into a Malay family and despised by both sides, a colonial agent alone at a river station, a Breton farm where the peasants deal with a fool. Conrad’s first collection, written while he was still deciding whether he was a sailor who wrote or a writer who had sailed. The lagoon and the outpost are already his. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Mears and Carstensen among them.

Of the five stories in this volume, “The Lagoon,” the last in order, is the earliest in date.
The first sentence of Tales of Unrest
A note on this edition

Tales of Unrest, by Joseph Conrad, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 136 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486697838
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The barquentine Emily Smeed, George Mears
The barquentine Emily Smeed George Mears 1884
Hollowed Cliff near Étretat, Claude Monet
Hollowed Cliff near Étretat Claude Monet 1884
Weststrand and casino in Oostende, François Musin
Weststrand and casino in Oostende François Musin 1885
Crew Dinner, Julien Le Blant
Crew Dinner Julien Le Blant 1884
Forest stream, Eduard Leonhardi
Forest stream Eduard Leonhardi 1884
St Mark’s Square, Venice, Ettore Tito
St Mark’s Square, Venice Ettore Tito 1884
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Tales of Unrest as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Tales of Unrest as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Tales of Unrest, first published 1898, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486697838, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Tales of Unrest?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Joseph Conrad's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 136 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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Tales of Unrest
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