Joseph Conrad has never been one of my favorite authors, no matter what rave reviews he receives in the English department (and of course I read "Heart of Darkness" way back then, when I had more stamina and far less grumpiness to deal with); he seems to bury excellent characters and perfectly fine stories under enormous piles of impenetrable prose. Conrad's "The Secret Agent" appeared a while back on a list of the greatest yarns about the English intelligence services ever written I say it's broccoli and I say the hell with it.
Here's a very nifty, if minor, book, though, written in 1876 about U. S. naval adventures during the war of 1812. If you've read the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin novels concerning that period you will recognize some of the stories. It's "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors," and it's a quick read.
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