In the 1920 Malay Edition of Joseph Conrad's collected works, the publisher Doubleday, Page and Company featured "Author's Notes" at the start of each novel -- in his note for The Rescue, Conrad shows great gratitude for its critical reception and gives background on the project and its 20 year hiatus.

Therefore he set it aside in 1898 and moved on to write The Nigger of Narcissus, Lord Jim, and Heart of Darkness before he resumed working on the novel in 1918.

In the summer of 1918, as The Great War raged toward its conclusion and the Spanish Flu epidemic began, Conrad returned to his long abandoned project.

True to his themes, Conrad rescued the ship he abandoned, and 24 years after he began writing, the title was published in 1920.

The Man and the Brig Young Tom Lingard is the owner and captain of a sailing ship, the Lightning which lies becalmed at night, somewhere in the Malayan archipelago.

Suddenly they are approached by a search party in a boat seeking help for a yacht which has become stranded on mudflats on a nearby island.

The Shore of Refuge The story backtracks to explain how Lingard first came into contact with the Wajo leader Hassim, and their instant bond of friendship.

When Lingard explains his plans to Jorgenson, the older man warns him against taking action, and offers his own life as an example of failure.

Lingard has previously visited local chief Belarab to ask for help, and offers him guns in exchange for manpower.

He buys the old schooner Emma and runs it aground close to Belarab to use as a weapons store, placing Jorgenson in charge.

Mrs Travers is fascinated by Immada's attractiveness, but the girl and her brother reproach Lingard for recently neglecting them, and leave with him when the interview comes to a fruitless conclusion.

Suddenly, Lingard rows up alongside to talk to her, telling her he feels completely detached from his British roots and more at home with the Malaysians.

Back on the brig, Lingard reads a letter he has received from Jorgenson describing disquiet amongst the natives who want to attack the stranded yacht.

Then chief mate Shaw protests against Lingard's plans – because he appears to be siding against fellow white men on the yacht.

Immada protests that he is putting himself at risk, whereupon Mrs Travers declares that she will go with him, much to the consternation of Carter, whilst Shaw is outraged at being left with no clear orders.

The story backtracks to describe Lingard's arrival at Daman's stockade to negotiate the temporary release of Travers and d'Alcacer.

On board the Emma Lingard and Mrs Travers exchange confidences about their earlier lives until they are joined by d'Alcacer, who has been observing their growing intimacy.

d'Alcacer braces himself philosophically for what he thinks will be certain death, whilst realising that Mr Travers is ill with some sort of fever.

The Claim of Life and the Toll of Death On board the Emma, Mrs Travers regrets the quarrelsome way she and Lingard parted.

The Spaniard is mainly concerned with the possibility of being murdered the next day, whilst Lingard thinks Mrs Travers could not help herself but join him.

In the morning mists there appear to be attacks imminent, but when a flotilla of canoes surrounds the Emma, Jorgenson blows up the ship, whereupon Belarab releases the prisoners.

The story is told through a sequence of unannounced time shifts, both forwards and backwards, a technique which permeates his major works.

Heliena Krenn says “It was the Malay Archipelago with its truths about human life dimmed by the mists of its jungles and waterways that started Conrad on his career as a novelist”.

She also argues that to completely understand other works such as Heart of Darkness or Lord Jim, readers must look closely at the Lingard Trilogy.

According to David Thorburn, Conrad intended for The Rescue to be a boys' book, similar to Robert Louis Stevenson's works.

Thorburn also argues that the character of Tom Lingard is a failure and unconvincing because “the mythic or archetypal collapses back into stereotype when it is too much insisted upon".