A study of human relationships must seem a trifle odd, pedestrian, or even irrelevant to those who still search diligently through Conrad in. order to be stimulated by his "atmospheric" passages, who still demand salty yarns from the "Prose Laureate of the Merchant Service", or who require from Conrad a "romantic" tale calling for no cerebral activity whatever on the part of the reader. However, these are not the only approaches to Conrad. My concern is with Conrad as novelist, as explorer of moral themes, and above all, as pessimistic writer. Joseph Conrad wrote best when depicting human beings, human beings in relation to each other, in relation to the society in which they lived, in relation to the world. These aspects of his work well warrant examination in terms of his themes and dominant philosophical attitude.