The Nature of a Crime

This short, curious collaboration between Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford takes the form of a long confession written by a respectable London solicitor to the married woman he secretly loves. Facing exposure, he admits that he has quietly embezzled the fortune of a young man left in his trust, and that he keeps a vial of poison ready should the fraud come to light. The letters trace his tangled feelings about money, guilt, desire, and the calm approach of self-destruction. Written by the two authors during their creative partnership and first published in 1909, it is a minor but intriguing product of a friendship that helped shape modern English fiction. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available.