[La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate)] develops in a more explicit way the ideas implicit in Les Conquérants. La Condition Humaine is a much more ambitious and a more remarkable book than Les Conquérants. In the latter, Garine pretty well holds the spotlight, and there is an "I" who plays the role of Dr. Watson, deeply agitated by his hero's every utterance and standing by, indefatigably wide-eyed, while Garine receives portentous telegrams. He also plays the role of Conrad's Marlow. He is, in fact, our old friend the fictional observer who, from a more or less conventional point of view, looks on at a mystery or a moral problem. In [La Condition Humaine], however, the novelist gets rid of his European observer and, meeting Trotsky's challenge [see excerpt above], attacks the revolution directly. Dealing with cultures the most diverse, moral systems the most irreconcilable, he establishes a...