Although Joseph Conrad is now regarded by many critics as one of the most important twentieth-century writers, popular acclaim proved hard for the Polish-born writer to achieve during his lifetime. It was Victory, a psychological thriller of sorts, that finally broke through and helped the writer gain the mass readership his writing deserves.

As the result of a run-in with the law, struggling American writer William Sydney Porter chose to make a dash for the border in 1896. During the several months he spent in Honduras, Porter had enough time on his hands to begin exploring his talent for writing, which up until then had been merely a hobby. The result was the group of stories that are collected in Cabbages and Kings. Though most of these pieces were written before Porter assumed