"Backgrounds and Contexts" brings together relevant correspondence and contemporary reviews from both British and American sources. Also included are documents related to Conrad's sources for the stories, among them Charles Arthur Sankey's "Ordeal of the Cutty Sark : A True Story of Mutiny, Murder on the High Seas." To help readers navigate, the editor includes a glossary of nautical terms as well as diagrams of the kinds of ships that appear in the stories. "Criticism" includes fifteen essays representing both new and established voices. The essays are arranged by story, with the focus on Conrad's major themes--colonialism, narrative, gender, and race. Albert J. Guerard, Lillian Nayder, Mark D. Larabee, Fredric Jameson, F. R. Leavis, and John G. Peters are among the contributors. A chronology of Conrad's life and work and a selected bibliography are also included.