Under Western Eyes

A reserved St. Petersburg student, Razumov, is drawn into betrayal when a fellow student who has assassinated a government minister seeks his help, setting off a tale of guilt, surveillance, and moral disintegration among Russian revolutionaries in exile in Geneva. Conrad’s austere, penetrating novel examines conscience, autocracy, and the corrosive effects of political violence and mistrust. Often compared to Dostoevsky, it is a masterful psychological study of a man trapped between tyranny and revolution. Cold, brilliant, and deeply unsettling, Under Western Eyes probes the isolation of the guilty soul and the tragic entanglements of politics, making it one of Conrad’s most searching works.