
The nature of a crime
by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford
- First published
- 1924
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"The Nature of a Crime" by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford is a collaborative novel written and published in 1909. Told through a series of letters, the story follows an unnamed lawyer who has gambled away his client's trust fund. As imprisonment looms, he confesses his forbidden love for a married woman while wrestling with despair and contemplating suicide. The narrator's internal struggle explores themes of guilt, redemption, and whether life retains meaning when stripped of hope and freedom.
- Epistolary fiction
- Man-woman relationships
- Embezzlement
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #75172. The nature of a crime on Wikipedia.











