I liked the prose, the characters were vivid and the setting was great. If someone had pointed out to me that a lot of Conrad's stories and books have a marine setting, I would have picked up his books a long time ago. I educated myself now and read about him on Wikipedia. I also added Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim to my list of books-you-should-read-before-you-die and my ever growing free Kindle library.

For someone whose first or second language was not English, Conrad wrote in it beautifully. I am not a big fan of using letters as a plot device to bring the narrative forward, but other than that I enjoyed this story very much, despite the tragic ending.