The Rover

After a lifetime of roaming the oceans as a privateer, the old seaman Peyrol comes home to the sun-baked coast of Provence to live out his final years in peace. It is the height of the Napoleonic wars, and the French fleet lies penned in Toulon by British ships blockading the coast. Peyrol settles at a lonely farmhouse where he grows attached to Arlette, a young woman scarred by the Revolution’s violence, and is drawn into a dangerous naval scheme against the enemy. Conrad’s last completed novel returns to the themes he knew best, the sea and the weight of a long life, and builds toward a final act of quiet self-sacrifice. Published in 1923, it makes a fitting close to his career. Enjoy this free PDF and EPUB edition.