Joseph Conrad's story sequences unfold the test of manhood with ironic consequences; his characters oscillate between impulsive desires and elevated moral convictions; his rhetoric proposes certainties, yet uncovers negations, vacillations, and contradictions; and his images bring together, or alternate between, clarity and obscurity. The technique of paradox is prevalent throughout his works, and The Craft of Conrad shows how a master craftsman has integrated, and on occasion failed to integrate, intellectual issue and technical skill in his most distinctive works.