A confrontation between the aristocracy and the common people, tyranny and lawlessness, rapacious authorities and the desire for reform, postcolonial syndrome and state-building intentions, unitarism and separatism, big business and foreign investment, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, high ideals and compromises with corruption, military coups and constant “saving of the country”. This is a novel about a Latin American state that has recently won its independence, a state that was invented by Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), a world-famous English writer. However, in spite of the fictitiousness of the geographical location, the events described are surprisingly real, as well as passions burning in the hearts of the characters. In Nostromo, this acknowledged masterpiece of English-language literature and the best of his novels, Conrad reaches the heights of his artistic study of the life of society and secrets of human soul.