Joseph Conrad is one of the writers whose works were read not only by mere mortals, but also by future fellow writers - several generations of writers from Jack London and Ernest Hemingway to William Faulkner and Graham Greene learned from him the art of composition, the lapidary capacity of descriptions, expressive music of phrases. Many of Conrad's works take place on land, but the writer's talent was fully revealed in books that are dedicated to the sea. "Heart of Darkness", "Typhoon" and "Freya of the Seven Islands", included in this collection, are classics of the genre, which can be called a "metaphysical sea story".