Joseph Conrad

For other uses, see Joseph Conrad (disambiguation).

Joseph Conrad
Head shot with moustache and beard
Conrad in 1904 by George Charles Beresford
BornJózef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
(1857-12-03)3 December 1857
Berdychiv, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire
Died3 August 1924(1924-08-03) (aged 66)
Bishopsbourne, Kent, England
Resting placeCanterbury Cemetery, Canterbury
OccupationNovelist, short-story writer, essayist
NationalityPolish–British[1]
Period1895–1923
GenreFiction
Literary movement
Notable worksHeart of Darkness (1899)
Lord Jim (1900)
Nostromo (1904)
The Secret Agent (1907)
Spouse
Jessie George
​
(m. 1896)​
Children2
ParentsApollo Korzeniowski
Ewa Bobrowska
Signature

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.[2][note 1] He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.[note 2] He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable and amoral world.[note 3]

Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others,[note 4] though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism.[9] His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example,[10] have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.[note 5]

Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires[16][note 6]—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.[18]

  1. ^ Brownstone & Franck 1994, p. 397
  2. ^ Brownstone, David M.; Franck, Irene M. (1994). Timelines of the Arts and Literature. HarperCollins. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-062-70069-8.
  3. ^ Conrad, Joseph; Moore, Gene M.; Knowles, Owen; Stape, John Henry (1983). The collected letters of Joseph Conrad. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-521323871.
  4. ^ Middleton, Tim (2006). Joseph Conrad. Routledge. p. xiv. ISBN 9780415268523.
  5. ^ Meyers (1991), p. 209.
  6. ^ Najder (2007), p. ix.
  7. ^ Meyers (1991), p. 166.
  8. ^ Robson (2017), p. 93.
  9. ^ Stape (2014), pp. 103–04.
  10. ^ Stape (2014), p. 70.
  11. ^ Tóibín (2018), p. 11.
  12. ^ Tóibín (2018), p. 8.
  13. ^ Tóibín (2018), p. 9.
  14. ^ Hochschild (2018), pp. 150–55.
  15. ^ Hochschild (2018), pp. 150–51.
  16. ^ Najder (2007), pp. 290, 352.
  17. ^ Zins (1998), p. 63.
  18. ^ Najder (2007), pp. 448–49.


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