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Classic shortish story by Conrad that relates his self-thought alienation from British society, as a young foreign man survives a shipwreck off the coast of Kent, England only to be shunned by most of the townsfolk. The one exception is the loving, if dull-witted, Miss Foster.

In this 1901 short story inspired by Ford Maddox Ford’s "The Cinque Ports", Conrad works on the theme of alienation. It centers on a young man, Yanko, the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Kent. The locals, not knowing that a boat has sunk, shun him as he washes up on their shores. But he is taken in by an eccentric local, and little by little, Yanko learns some English and falls in love with the servant girl, Amy Foster. But he has not come to the end of his troubles yet and the community keeps him at arm’s length, terrified of his very difference.

The story is about an impertinent red squirrel named Nutkin and his narrow escape from an owl called Old Brown. The title followed Potter's hugely successful The Tale of Peter Rabbit and was an instant hit. One commentator has likened Squirrel Nutkin's impertinent behaviour to that of the rebellious working class of Potter's own day, and another commentator has noted the tale's similarities to pourquoi tales and folk tales in its explanations of Squirrel Nutkin's short tail and characteristics of squirrel behaviour.

Originally published in the 1851 Christmas edition of Dickens' journal Household Words, "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older" is an essay suggesting that Christmas should be a time of gratitude and forgiveness.