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Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Polish: [ˈjuzɛf tɛˈɔdɔr ˈkɔnrat kɔʐɛˈɲɔfskʲi] ⓘ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and story writer.
- Overview
- Early years
- Life at sea
Joseph Conrad’s original name was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. He adopted the pen name Joseph Conrad in April 1895 with the publication of his novel Almayer’s Folly.
What was Joseph Conrad’s family like?
Joseph Conrad’s father, Apollo Nalęcz Korzeniowski, was a poet and an ardent Polish patriot who participated in a Polish insurrection against Russian rule. After both his parents died from tuberculosis, Conrad was put under the care of his maternal uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski, a lawyer.
What were Joseph Conrad’s jobs?
Joseph Conrad was an English novelist and short-story writer of Polish descent who is regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. Before his writing career, he worked on the sea, rising from apprentice to captain. He mined his maritime experiences for use in his fiction.
What is Joseph Conrad known for?
Conrad’s father, Apollo Nalęcz Korzeniowski, a poet and an ardent Polish patriot, was one of the organizers of the committee that went on in 1863 to direct the Polish insurrection against Russian rule. He was arrested in late 1861 and was sent into exile at Vologda in northern Russia. His wife and four-year-old son followed him there, and the harsh...
Bobrowski made him an allowance of 2,000 francs a year and put him in touch with a merchant named Delestang, in whose ships Conrad sailed in the French merchant service. His first voyage, on the Mont-Blanc to Martinique, was as a passenger; on its next voyage he sailed as an apprentice. In July 1876 he again sailed to the West Indies, as a steward on the Saint-Antoine. On this voyage Conrad seems to have taken part in some unlawful enterprise, probably gunrunning, and to have sailed along the coast of Venezuela, memories of which were to find a place in Nostromo. The first mate of the vessel, a Corsican named Dominic Cervoni, was the model for the hero of that novel and was to play a picturesque role in Conrad’s life and work.
Conrad became heavily enmeshed in debt upon returning to Marseille and apparently unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide. As a sailor in the French merchant navy he was liable to conscription when he came of age, so after his recovery he signed on in April 1878 as a deckhand on a British freighter bound for Constantinople with a cargo of coal. After the return journey his ship landed him at Lowestoft, England, in June 1878. It was Conrad’s first English landfall, and he spoke only a few words of the language of which he was to become a recognized master. Conrad remained in England, and in the following October he shipped as an ordinary seaman aboard a wool clipper on the London–Sydney run.
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Conrad was to serve 16 years in the British merchant navy. In June 1880 he passed his examination as second mate, and in April 1881 he joined the Palestine, a bark of 425 tons. This move proved to be an important event in his life; it took him to the Far East for the first time, and it was also a continuously troubled voyage, which provided him with literary material that he would use later. Beset by gales, accidentally rammed by a steamer, and deserted by a sizable portion of her crew, the Palestine nevertheless had made it as far as the East Indies when her cargo of coal caught fire and the crew had to take to the lifeboats; Conrad’s initial landing in the East, on an island off Sumatra, took place only after a 13 1/2-hour voyage in an open boat. In 1898 Conrad published his account of his experiences on the Palestine, with only slight alterations, as the short story “Youth,” a remarkable tale of a young officer’s first command.
He returned to London by passenger steamer, and in September 1883 he shipped as mate on the Riversdale, leaving her at Madras to join the Narcissus at Bombay. This voyage gave him material for his novel The Nigger of the “Narcissus,” the story of an egocentric black sailor’s deterioration and death aboard ship. At about this time Conrad began writing his earliest known letters in the English language. In between subsequent voyages Conrad studied for his first mate’s certificate, and in 1886 two notable events occurred: he became a British subject in August, and three months later he obtained his master mariner’s certificate.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 2, 2014 · Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born British author who wrote novels like Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, based on his experiences as a mariner and his interest in moral conflict and the dark side of human nature. Learn about his life, works, influences and legacy on Biography.com.
Writing career: notable works, themes, and style of Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad, 1916. Back in London in the summer of 1889, Conrad took rooms near the Thames and, while waiting for a command, began to write Almayer’s Folly.
Apr 6, 2019 · Learn about the life and works of Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest English-language novelists of all time, who was born in the Russian Empire to a Polish-speaking family and became a prominent writer of the early 20th century. Explore his early years, merchant marine career, literary celebrity, personal life, and legacy.
Joseph Conrad bibliography. The works of Joseph Conrad encompass novels, short stories, nonfiction, and memoirs. Although he was born in Poland and spoke Polish and French fluently from childhood, he wrote in English, which he did not learn until his twenties. Philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski recalled Conrad explaining this, saying "I value ...
Nov 13, 2017 · Books. Joseph Conrad’s Journey. Was the novelist right to think everyone was getting him wrong? By Leo Robson. November 13, 2017. Conrad mined his life for material, but chafed at being...
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