The State of Jessie’s Knees was not improving; her left knee required hospital treatment. On about 10 October the Conrads went to London and stayed for almost three months. At first they lived at 10 Prince’s Square, in Bayswater—the future whereabouts of Old Nelson (or Nielsen), the father of the unfortunate Freya of the Seven Isles, heroine of Conrad’s later story; on 20 October they moved closer to Galsworthy, to 99B Addison Road, a charming street lined with trees, adjacent to Holland Park. Medical examination of Jessie’s joints lasted several weeks and produced conflicting opinions. Jessie was finally placed in a nursing home where she was operated on by Bruce Clarke on 24 November. Initially it seemed that the operation was successful; later, however, it appeared that the state of the damaged limb had become even worse.

Meanwhile the book edition of Nostromo, dedicated to Galsworthy, came out on 14 October. Galsworthy recalled later that Conrad regarded this novel as his most important work, and he apparently told Cecil Roberts that the book was the one “dearest to his heart.” Conrad also often declared his dismay at the way Nostromo had been received by the critics and the public. Having put so much work and energy into the most “imagined” of his novels—a novel less based on memories and more on reading than any of his others—he was very disappointed, although as Norman Sherry rightly observes, some of the reviews were favorable: “Conrad was misunderstood, even attacked, but he was also praised.” Conrad’s bitterness was not due to his excessive touchiness; perhaps he cherished two hopes—first, that the book would attain popularity and thus relieve him from his constant financial worries and second, that Nostromo’s intellectual content and artistic innovation would not go unnoticed by the critics and would thus afford its author some professional satisfaction. However, the public showed only a feeble interest, and the reviews evinced a lack of understanding of the book’s structure and ideas. Among the few exceptions was Garnett’s penetrating article in the Speaker: Garnett turned out to be the only critic who perceived the book’s real theme.