Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. His story A Smile of Fortune is a masterly tale of misplaced loyalty, family feuds, and illicit bargaining. Embarking in the tropics, a ship's captain makes the instant acquaintance of a seemingly genial Mr. Jacobus and his irritable brother. .