Chance

Flora de Barral grows up expecting comfort, then loses everything when her father, a celebrated financier, is exposed as a swindler and sent to prison. Cast off and half-convinced she is unlovable, she drifts until Captain Roderick Anthony offers her marriage and a berth aboard his ship, though the union carries its own strains once her ruined father is set free. Conrad tells the story at a slant, filtering it through several narrators including his familiar seaman Marlow, so the truth arrives in pieces. Published as a book in 1913, this was the novel that finally won Conrad a wide readership, pairing his interest in fathers and daughters with a subtle study of how much of a life turns on luck. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.