let the quest begin!
I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you
can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with
nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators,
without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of
victory, without the great fear of defeat.
--Heart of Darkness
"
English" Author and leading proponent of
Modernism, Joseph Conrad
was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski at the end of the
Crimean
War in
1857. Whilst Conrad is often referred to as Polish, he was
born in
Berdichev in the
Ukraine to Polish parents. The area had
originally been part
Poland, but at the time of Conrad's birth it
was under the rule of the
Tsarist autocracy.
His father Apollo Korzeniowski was a landless aristocrat. Apollo
had a passion for language, and spent six years at St. Petersburg
University studying French and English literature without earning a
degree. Although Apollo was known for his generally unpleasant
nature, he spent much time educating young Jozef in writing and
speech. After becoming involved in revolutionary political
intrigue, Apollo fled to Volgoda in Russia. Jozef followed.
During their time in Russia, Conrad's mother Eva developed tuberculosis and died in
1865. Jozef too was ailing, and developed persistent migraines that
haunted him for the rest of his life. Dogged by the loss of his wife,
Apollo died of tuberculosis in 1869.
Orphaned, Conrad was sent to live in Switzerland with his maternal
uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski. After schooling in Krakow, Jozef became
obsessed by the sea. Although his uncle disapproved, in the
mid-1870s he joined the French merchant marine as an apprentice,
and made multiple voyages to the West Indies between 1875 and
1878. It is rumoured that during his period, Conrad also was involved
in arms smuggling for the Carlist cause in Spain.
By 1878, Jozef had made his way to England looking to become an
officer in the British navy. He spent the next twenty years sailing
between British colonies, and wrote myriad letters and journals of his exploits. After
suffering an almost crippling spinal injury, he paused for two months
in Mauritius, unsuccessfully courting local women. He returned to
cooler climes in 1889 and began his first novel Almayer's Folly,
under the anglicized name "Joseph Conrad". The choice to write in
English is amazing. It was Conrad's fourth language after French,
Polish and Russian.
Conrad continued sailing, heading into the Congo in 1890. His
wrath at the horrors of the colonial regime lead him to write
Heart of Darkness. Jozef returned to England to find that his
guardian-uncle had died. The inheritance gave Conrad the stability to
concentrate on his writing, which culminated in the publishing of
Almayer's Folly in 1894. During the next few years, Conrad wrote
prolifically drawing upon his past journals for inspiration. He married
Jessie George in 1896 after a protracted courtship. Despite often
being characterized as a lonely man, Conrad developed a close circle of
friends, amongst whom numbered authors Stephen Crane and Henry
James.
He made a brief return to Poland and then to America. He died of a
heart attack in 1924, writing until his very death.
bibliography
http://www.literatureclassics.com/authors/Conrad/
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/authors/conradj.html
http://mural.uv.es/rosegar/HEART%20OF%20DARKNESS.html
http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Conrad.html
Almost all of Conrad's works are available free through Project
Gutenberg at:
ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/by-author/co7.html
Works of Joseph Conrad
1895 Almayer's Folly (Macmillan)
1896 An Outcast of the Islands (D. Appleton)
1897 The Nigger of the Narcissus: A Tale of the Forecastle
(Heinemann); published in America as The Children of the Sea: A Tale
of the Forecastle (Dodd)
1898 Tales of Unrest (Scribner)
1900 Lord Jim (Doubleday & McClure)
1901 with Ford Maddox Hueffer, later Ford Maddox Ford, The
Inheritors (McClure, Phillips)
1902 Typhoon and Other Stories (Putnam)
1902 Youth: A Narrative, and Two Other Stories (Blackwood)
1902 Heart of Darkness (Blackwood)
1903 with Hueffer, Romance (Smith, Elder)
1904 Nostromo (Harper & Brothers)
1906 The Mirror of the Sea (Harper & Brothers) (autobiography)
1907 The Secret Agent (Harper & Brothers)
1908 A Set of Six (Methuen)
1911 Under Western Eyes (Harper & Brothers)
1912 Twixt Land and Sea (Hodder & Stoughton)
1912 Some Reminiscences (E. Nash); published in America as A
Personal Record (Harper & Brothers)
1913 Chance (Doubleday, Page)
1915 Victory (Doubleday, Page)
1915 Within the Tides (Dent)
1917 The Shadow Line (Doubleday, Page)
1919 The Arrow of Gold (Doubleday, Page)
1920 The Rescue (Doubleday, Page)
1921 Notes on Life and Letters (Doubleday, Page)
1921 Notes on My Books (Doubleday, Page)
1923 The Rover (Doubleday, Page)
1924 with Hueffer, The Nature of a Crime (Doubleday, Page)
(released pothumously)
1925 Suspense: A Napoleonic Novel (Doubleday, Page)
1925 Tales of Hearsay (Doubleday, Page)
1926 Last Essays (Doubleday, Page)
1928 The Sisters (C. Gaige)