Because no American periodical wished to serialize it, The Arrow of Gold was published in the USA about four months before the London edition and lacks many of Conrad's last-minute changes. Originally titled "The Laugh," it was published serially in Lloyd's Magazine from December 1918 to February 1920. The story is set in Marseilles in the 1870s during the Third Carlist War and the characters of the novel are supporters of the Spanish Pretender, Carlos, Duke of Madrid.
