Joseph Conrad 
Nostromo, A Tale of the Seaboard 

Nostromo is a 1904 novel by Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of ‘Costaguana’. It was originally published serially in two volumes of T.P.’s Weekly.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nostromo 47th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, ‘I’d rather have written Nostromo than any other novel.’Nostromo is set in the South American country of Costaguana; though a fictional nation, Costaguana’s geography as described in the book resembles real-life Colombia. Costaguana has a long history of tyranny, revolution and warfare, but has recently experienced a period of stability under the dictator Ribiera.Charles Gould is a native Costaguanero of English descent who owns an important silver-mining concession near the key port of Sulaco. He is tired of the political instability in Costaguana and its concomitant corruption, and uses his wealth to support Ribiera’s government.