For another uses, see Joseph Conrad (disambiguation).

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski 3 Dec 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and divide story writer.

He is viewed as one of the superior writers in the English language; though he did not say something or anything to English fluently until his decennary. He wrote novels and fabled, many in nautical settings, go off depict crises of human psyche in the midst of what he saw as an intact, inscrutable and amoral world.

Many clear films have been adapted liberate yourself from and inspired by his deeds.

Numerous writers and critics suppress commented that his fictional oeuvre, written largely in the crowning two decades of the Ordinal century, seem to have forthcoming later world events.

Writing near magnanimity peak of the British Control, Conrad drew on the ceremonial experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences increase by two the French and British tradesman navies, to create short fabled and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism.

Early years

Conrad was born idiosyncrasy 3 December 1857 in Berdychiv (Polish: Berdyczów), Ukraine, then measurement of the Russian Empire.

Dirt was the only child time off Apollo Korzeniowski—a writer, translator, public activist, and would-be revolutionary—and cap wife Ewa Bobrowska.

Because of the father's attempts clichйd farming and his political activism, the family moved repeatedly.

In bad taste May 1861 they moved sort out Warsaw, where Apollo joined primacy resistance against the Russian Power. He was arrested and incarcerated in Pavilion X of significance Warsaw Citadel. On 9 Could 1862 Apollo and his descent were exiled to Vologda, Cardinal kilometres (310 mi) north of Moscow and known for its damaging climate.

In January 1863 Apollo's sentence was commuted, and probity family was sent to Chernihiv in northeast Ukraine, where environment were much better. However, rationale 18 April 1865 Ewa monotonous of tuberculosis.

Apollo did his crush to teach Conrad at domicile. The boy's early reading naturalized him to the two smattering that later dominated his life: in Victor Hugo's Toilers disagree with the Sea, he encountered dignity sphere of activity to which he would devote his youth; Shakespeare brought him into honourableness orbit of English literature.

Pinnacle of all, though, he pass on Polish Romantic poetry.

On 23 Can 1869, Apollo Korzeniowski died, departure Conrad orphaned at the regard of eleven. Like Conrad's progenitrix, Apollo had been gravely severe with tuberculosis.

The juvenile Conrad was placed in class care of Ewa's brother, Tadeusz Bobrowski.

Conrad's poor health meticulous his unsatisfactory schoolwork caused her highness uncle constant problems and inept end of financial outlay. Author was not a good student; despite tutoring, he excelled single in geography. At that lifetime he likely received private tuition only, as there is pollex all thumbs butte evidence he attended any institution regularly.

In the autumn exhaust 1871, thirteen-year-old Conrad announced ruler intention to become a sailor.

On 13 October 1874 Bobrowski tie the sixteen-year-old to Marseilles, Writer, for Conrad's planned merchant-marine existence on French merchant ships. Surmount uncle provided him with great monthly stipend as well (set at 150 francs).

Though Writer had not completed secondary institute, his accomplishments included fluency make a way into French (with a correct accent), some knowledge of Latin, Teutonic and Greek; probably a good knowledge of history, some layout, and probably already an irk in physics. He was follow read, particularly in Polish Starry-eyed literature.

He belonged to interpretation second generation in his race that had had to deserve a living outside the cover estates.

Merchant marine

After nearly quaternity years in France and sacrament French ships, Conrad joined glory British merchant marine, enlisting cry April 1878 (he had maximum likely started learning English erelong before).

For the next fifteen life, he served under the Illtreated Ensign.

He worked on organized variety of ships as populace member (steward, apprentice, able seaman) and then as third, in a short time and first mate, until sooner or later achieving captain's rank.

During the 19 years detach from the time that Conrad esoteric left Kraków, in October 1874, until he signed off glory Adowa, in January 1894, be active had worked in ships, together with long periods in port, transport 10 years and almost 8 months. He had spent grouchy over 8 years at sea—9 months of it as straighten up passenger.

His sole captaincy took place in 1888–89, when let go commanded the barqueOtago from Sydney to Mauritius.

The year 1890 marked Conrad's first return to Poland, swivel he would visit his scribbler and other relatives and acquaintances.

This visit took place ultimately he was waiting to move to the Congo Free Assert, having been hired by Albert Thys, deputy director of decency Société Anonyme Belge pour prize Commerce du Haut-Congo. Conrad's put together with the Belgian company, certification the Congo River, would invigorate his novella, Heart of Darkness.

Conrad completed his last long-distance cruise as a seaman on 26 July 1893.

Writer

In 1894, aged 36, Conrad reluctantly gave up authority sea, partly because of poor quality health, partly due to inaccessibility of ships, and partly as he had become so enchanted with writing that he esoteric decided on a literary life.

Almayer's Folly, set on greatness east coast of Borneo, was published in 1895. Its showing marked his first use be in the region of the pen name "Joseph Conrad".

Almayer's Folly, together with its compeer, An Outcast of the Islands (1896), laid the foundation get into Conrad's reputation as a starry-eyed teller of exotic tales.

Almost diminution of Conrad's writings were extreme published in newspapers and magazines.

He also wrote for The Outlook, an imperialist weekly journal, between 1898 and 1906.

Financial outcome long eluded Conrad, who generally requested advances from magazine unacceptable book publishers, and loans steer clear of acquaintances such as John Author. Eventually a government grant ("civil list pension") of £100 rigid annum, awarded on 9 Honoured 1910, somewhat relieved his monetary worries, and in time collectors began purchasing his manuscripts.

Scour his talent was early come close to recognised by English intellectuals, accepted success eluded him until say publicly 1913 publication of Chance, which is often considered one star as his weaker novels.

Personal life

Conrad appreciated throughout life from ill not fixed, physical and mental. In 1891 he was hospitalised for various months, suffering from gout, neuralgic pains in his right extremity and recurrent attacks of malaria.

He also complained of distended hands "which made writing difficult". Conrad had a phobia unconscious dentistry, neglecting his teeth in the balance they had to be extracted. In one letter he remarked that every novel he challenging written had cost him fastidious tooth.

Marriage

On 24 March 1896 Author married an Englishwoman, Jessie Martyr.

The couple had two scions, Borys and John.

The couple rented a long series of uninterrupted homes, mostly in the Candidly countryside.

Except for several vacations misrepresent France and Italy, a 1914 vacation in his native Polska, and a 1923 visit bring out the United States, Conrad flybynight the rest of his take a crack at in England.

Death

On 3 August 1924, Conrad died rot his house, Oswalds, in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England, probably of organized heart attack.

He was pushing up the daisies at Canterbury Cemetery, Canterbury, adorn a misspelled version of original Polish name, as "Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski". Inscribed perspective his gravestone are the hold your horses from Edmund Spenser's The Faery Queene which he had korea as the epigraph to tiara last complete novel, The Rover:

Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,

Ease after warre, termination after life, doth greatly please

Conrad's wife Jessie died twelve period later, on 6 December 1936, and was interred with him.

In 1996 his grave was fixed a Grade II listed structure.

Writing style

Themes and style

Conrad wrote oftener get a move on life at sea and dash exotic parts than about growth on British land because lighten up knew little about everyday tame relations in Britain.

Conrad used coronet own memories as literary constituents so often that readers strengthen tempted to treat his sure of yourself and work as a unique whole.

His "view of rank world", or elements of movement, is often described by cheerless at once both his ormal and public statements, passages escape his letters, and citations shun his books.

Many of Conrad's notating were inspired by actual general public he had met.

Apart from Conrad's own experiences, a number past its best episodes in his fiction were suggested by past or new publicly known events or fictional works.

The first half salary the 1900 novel Lord Jim (the Patna episode) was of genius by the real-life 1880 erection of the SS Jeddah; the subsequent part, to some extent because of the life of James Poet, the first White Rajah sequester Sarawak.

In Nostromo (completed 1904), justness theft of a massive set accident of silver was suggested get rid of Conrad by a story forbidden had heard in the Wet through of Mexico and later pass on about in a "volume most-liked up outside a second-hand bookshop."

For the natural surroundings of nobility high seas, the Malay Islet and South America, which Writer described so vividly, he could rely on his own observations.

Language

Conrad spoke his native Polish focus on the French language fluently evade childhood and only acquired Ethically in his twenties.

He would probably have spoken some State as a child; he undeniably had to have some understanding of German and Russian.

Conrad chose, however, to write his fabrication in English. He says listed his preface to A Outoftheway Record that writing in Land was for him "natural".

In representation opinion of some biographers, Conrad's third language, English, remained underneath directed by the influence of his crowning two languages—Polish and French.

That makes his English seem unusual.

Citizenship

Conrad was a Russian subject, taking accedence been born in the Country part of what had before been the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later his father's death, Conrad's wordsmith Bobrowski had attempted to enduring Austrian citizenship for him—to pollex all thumbs butte avail, probably because Conrad esoteric not received permission from Slavonic authorities to remain abroad always and had not been at large from being a Russian dealings.

Conrad could not return preempt Ukraine, in the Russian Empire—he would have been liable join many years' military service accept, as the son of civil exiles, to harassment.

In a sign of 9 August 1877, Conrad's uncle Bobrowski broached two crucial subjects: the desirability of Conrad's naturalisation abroad (tantamount to run away from being a Russian subject) and Conrad's plans to marry the British merchant marine.

"[D]o you speak English?... I not ever wished you to become imported in France, mainly because elect the compulsory military service... Beside oneself thought, however, of your beginning naturalized in Switzerland..." In rulership next letter, Bobrowski supported Conrad's idea of seeking citizenship game the United States or objection "one of the more elder Southern [American] Republics".

Eventually Conrad would make his home in England.

On 2 July 1886 sand applied for British nationality, which was granted on 19 Esteemed 1886. Yet, in spite recall having become a subject identical Queen Victoria, Conrad had put together ceased to be a long way round of Tsar Alexander III. Be achieve his freedom from become absent-minded subjection, he had to create many visits to the State Embassy in London and agreeably reiterate his request.

He would later recall the Embassy's component at Belgrave Square in sovereign novel The Secret Agent. At last, on 2 April 1889, character Russian Ministry of Home Setting released "the son of efficient Polish man of letters, foremost of the British merchant marine" from the status of Slavonic subject.

Memorials

An anchor-shaped monument to Writer at Gdynia, on Poland's Sea Seacoast, features a quotation free yourself of him in Polish: "Nic tak nie nęci, nie rozczarowuje funny nie zniewala, jak życie honest morzu" ("[T]here is nothing alternative enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving outstrip the life at sea" – Lord Jim, chapter 2, critique 1).

In Circular Quay, Sydney, Continent, a plaque in a "writers walk" commemorates Conrad's visits appraise Australia between 1879 and 1892.

The plaque notes that "Many of his works reflect consummate 'affection for that young continent.'"

In San Francisco in 1979, precise small triangular square at City Avenue and Beach Street, nearby Fisherman's Wharf, was dedicated although "Joseph Conrad Square" after Author.

The square's dedication was timed to coincide with release deadly Francis Ford Coppola's Heart discern Darkness-inspired film, Apocalypse Now. Author does not appear to possess ever visited San Francisco.

In grandeur latter part of World Armed conflict II, the Royal NavycruiserHMS Danae was rechristened ORP Conrad alight served as part of loftiness Polish Navy.

Notwithstanding the undoubted sufferings meander Conrad endured on many mean his voyages, sentimentality and judicious marketing place him at loftiness best lodgings in several search out his destinations.

Hotels across primacy Far East still lay get somewhere to him as an respected guest, with, however, no support to back their claims: Singapore's Raffles Hotel continues to abide he stayed there though no problem lodged, in fact, at picture Sailors' Home nearby. His upon to Bangkok also remains household that city's collective memory, opinion is recorded in the legal history of The Oriental Caravanserai (where he never, in truth, stayed, lodging aboard his cutter, the Otago) along with become absent-minded of a less well-behaved boarder, Somerset Maugham, who pilloried excellence hotel in a short draw in revenge for attempts confine eject him.

A plaque commemorating "Joseph Conrad–Korzeniowski" has been installed in effect Singapore's Fullerton Hotel.

Conrad is extremely reported to have stayed deride Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel—at wonderful port that, in fact, proscribed never visited.

Later literary admirers, notably Graham Greene, followed believably in his footsteps, sometimes requesting the same room and protection myths that have no argument in fact. No Caribbean backup is yet known to control claimed Conrad's patronage, although forbidden is believed to have stayed at a Fort-de-Francepension upon onset in Martinique on his prime voyage, in 1875, when good taste travelled as a passenger upsurge the Mont Blanc.

In April 2013, a monument to Conrad was unveiled in the Russian city of Vologda, where he brook his parents lived in refugee in 1862–63.

The monument was removed, with unclear explanation, wealthy June 2016.

Legacy

After the publication be in possession of Chance in 1913, Conrad was the subject of more disputed and praise than any pander to English writer of the tightly. He had a genius tail companionship, and his circle have a high opinion of friends, which he had afoot assembling even prior to fillet first publications, included authors obscure other leading lights in high-mindedness arts, such as Henry Outlaw, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, Toilet Galsworthy, Galsworthy's wife Ada Author (translator of French literature), Prince Garnett, Garnett's wife Constance Garnett (translator of Russian literature), Author Crane, Hugh Walpole, George Physiologist Shaw, H.

G. Wells (whom Conrad dubbed "the historian rivalry the ages to come"), Poet Bennett, Norman Douglas, Jacob Sculptor, T. E. Lawrence, André Writer, Paul Valéry, Maurice Ravel, Valery Larbaud, Saint-John Perse, Edith Author, James Huneker, anthropologist Bronisław Anthropologist, Józef Retinger (later a father of the European Movement, which led to the European Unity, and author of Conrad lecture His Contemporaries).

In the ill-timed 1900s Conrad composed a wee series of novels in association with Ford Madox Ford.

In 1919 and 1922 Conrad's growing distinction and prestige among writers dispatch critics in continental Europe supported his hopes for a Chemist Prize in Literature. It was apparently the French and Swedes—not the English—who favoured Conrad's candidacy.

In April 1924 Conrad, who dominated a hereditary Polish status chief nobility and coat-of-arms (Nałęcz), declined a (non-hereditary) British knighthood offered by Labour Party Prime See to Ramsay MacDonald.

Conrad kept out distance from official structures—he not voted in British national elections—and seems to have been vapour to public honours generally; pacify had already refused honorary scale 1 from Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Metropolis, and Yale universities.

In the Font People's Republic, translations of Conrad's works were openly published, count out for Under Western Eyes, which in the 1980s was obtainable as an underground "bibuła".

Conrad's legend style and anti-heroic characters be endowed with influenced many authors, including Systematized.

S. Eliot, Maria Dąbrowska, Absolute ruler. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Gerald Basil Edwards, Ernest Hemingway, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, André Malraux, Martyr Orwell, Graham Greene, William Writer, William Burroughs, Saul Bellow, Archangel García Márquez, Peter Matthiessen, Toilet le Carré, V. S. Naipaul, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Saint PynchonJ.

M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie. Many films have anachronistic adapted from, or inspired strong, Conrad's works.

Works

Main article: Joseph Writer bibliography

Novels

Stories

• "The Black Mate": cursive, according to Conrad, in 1886; may be counted as sovereignty opus double zero; published 1908; posthumously collected in Tales rule Hearsay, 1925.
• "The Idiots": Conrad's actually first short story, which might be counted as his creation zero, was written during crown honeymoon (1896), published in The Savoy periodical, 1896, and unshaken in Tales of Unrest, 1898.
• "The Lagoon": composed 1896; published drag Cornhill Magazine, 1897; collected reclaim Tales of Unrest, 1898: "It is the first short story I ever wrote."
• "An Outpost quite a few Progress": written 1896; published beget Cosmopolis, 1897, and collected calculate Tales of Unrest, 1898: "My next [second] effort in short-story writing"; it shows numerous line affinities with Heart of Darkness; in 1906, Conrad described skill as his "best story".
• "The Return": completed early 1897, while penmanship "Karain"; never published in review form; collected in Tales keep in good condition Unrest, 1898: "[A]ny kind chat about 'The Return' (and nearby have been such words supposed at different times) awakens restrict me the liveliest gratitude, ask for I know how much primacy writing of that fantasy has cost me in sheer dig, in temper, and in disillusion." Conrad, who suffered while script book this psychological chef-d'oeuvre of musing, once remarked: "I hate it."
• "Karain: A Memory": written February–April 1897; published November 1897 in Blackwood's Magazine and collected in Tales of Unrest, 1898: "my ordinal short story in...

  order suggest time".

• "Youth": written 1898; collected lead to Youth, a Narrative, and Span Other Stories, 1902
• "Falk": novella Best performance story, written early 1901; undismayed only in Typhoon and Further Stories, 1903
• "Amy Foster": composed 1901; published in the Illustrated Writer News, December 1901, and impassive in Typhoon and Other Stories, 1903.
• "To-morrow": written early 1902; serialised in The Pall Mall Magazine, 1902, and collected in Typhoon and Other Stories, 1903
• "Gaspar Ruiz": written after Nostromo in 1904–5; published in The Strand Magazine, 1906, and collected in A Set of Six, 1908 (UK), 1915 (US).

  This story was the only piece of Conrad's fiction ever adapted by rank author for cinema, as Gaspar the Strong Man, 1920.

• "An Anarchist": written late 1905; serialised lay hands on Harper's Magazine, 1906; collected affix A Set of Six, 1908 (UK), 1915 (US)
• "The Informer": bound before January 1906; published, Dec 1906, in Harper's Magazine, near collected in A Set wait Six, 1908 (UK), 1915 (US)
• "The Brute": written early 1906; obtainable in The Daily Chronicle, Dec 1906; collected in A Inactive of Six, 1908 (UK), 1915 (US)
• "The Duel: A Military Story": serialised in the UK bargain The Pall Mall Magazine, anciently 1908, and later that gathering in the US as "The Point of Honor", in character periodical Forum; collected in A Set of Six in 1908 and published by Garden Movement Publishing in 1924.

  Joseph Fouché makes a cameo appearance.

• "Il Conde" (i.e., "Conte" [The Count]): exposed in Cassell's Magazine (UK), 1908, and Hampton's (US), 1909; impassive in A Set of Six, 1908 (UK), 1915 (US)
• "The Redden Sharer": written December 1909; obtainable in Harper's Magazine, 1910, mushroom collected in Twixt Land subject Sea, 1912
• "Prince Roman": written 1910, published 1911 in The Metropolis and Cambridge Review; posthumously unalarmed in Tales of Hearsay, 1925; based on the story end Prince Roman Sanguszko of Polska (1800–81)
• "A Smile of Fortune": organized long story, almost a best-seller, written in mid-1910; published delete London Magazine, February 1911; composed in 'Twixt Land and Sea, 1912
• "Freya of the Seven Isles": a near-novella, written late 1910–early 1911; published in The Inner-city Magazine and London Magazine, apparent 1912 and July 1912, respectively; collected in 'Twixt Land at an earlier time Sea, 1912
• "The Partner": written 1911; published in Within the Tides, 1915
• "The Inn of the Mirror image Witches": written 1913; published bargain Within the Tides, 1915
• "Because invoke the Dollars": written 1914; accessible in Within the Tides, 1915
• "The Planter of Malata": written 1914; published in Within the Tides, 1915
• "The Warrior's Soul": written uplift 1915–early 1916; published in Land and Water, March 1917; cool in Tales of Hearsay, 1925
• "The Tale": Conrad's only story transport World War I; written 1916, first published 1917 in The Strand Magazine; posthumously collected comic story Tales of Hearsay, 1925

Essays

• "Autocracy explode War" (1905)
• The Mirror of authority Sea (collection of autobiographical essays first published in various magazines 1904–06), 1906
• A Personal Record (also published as Some Reminiscences), 1912
• The First News, 1918
• The Lesson entrap the Collision: A monograph go on a goslow the loss of the "Empress of Ireland", 1919
• The Polish Question, 1919
• The Shock of War, 1919
• Notes on Life and Letters, 1921
• Notes on My Books, 1921
• Last Essays, edited by Richard Curle, 1926
• The Congo Diary and Other Ungathered Pieces, edited by Zdzisław Najder, 1978, ISBN: 978-0-385-00771-9

Adaptations

A number funding works in various genres spell media have been based acceptance, or inspired by, Conrad's belles-lettres, including:

Cinema

• Victory (1919), directed by Maurice Tourneur
• Gaspar the Strong Man (1920), adapted by Conrad from "Gaspar Ruiz"
• Lord Jim (1925), directed newborn Victor Fleming
• Niebezpieczny raj (Dangerous Paradise, 1930), a Polish adaptation jump at Victory
• Dangerous Paradise (1930), an rendering of Victory directed by William Wellman
• Sabotage (1936), adapted from Conrad's The Secret Agent, directed beside Alfred Hitchcock
• Under Western Eyes (1936), directed by Marc Allégret
• Victory (1940), featuring Fredric March
• An Outcast disregard the Islands (1952), directed get by without Carol Reed and featuring Trevor Howard
• Laughing Anne (1953), based flit Conrad's short story "Because disturb the Dollars" and his do Laughing Anne.
• Lord Jim (1965), booked by Richard Brooks and diva Peter O'Toole
• The Rover (1967), fitting of the novel The Rover (1923), directed by Terence Youthful, featuring Anthony Quinn
• La ligne d'ombre (1973), a TV adaptation carefulness The Shadow Line by Georges Franju
• Smuga cienia (The Shadow Line, 1976), a Polish-British adaptation locate The Shadow Line, directed hard Andrzej Wajda
• The Duellists (1977), brainstorm adaptation by Ridley Scott stand for "The Duel"
• Naufragio (1977), a Mexican adaptation of "To-morrow" directed moisten Jaime Humberto Hermosillo
• Apocalypse Now (1979), by Francis Ford Coppola, modified from Heart of Darkness
• Un reietto delle isole (1980), by Giorgio Moser, an Italian adaptation long-awaited An Outcast of the Islands, starring Maria Carta
• Victory (1995), equipped by director Mark Peploe unearth the novel
• The Secret Agent (1996), starring Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette and Gérard Depardieu
• Swept from rank Sea (1997), an adaptation be frightened of "Amy Foster" directed by Beeban Kidron
• Gabrielle (2005) directed by Patrice Chéreau.

  Adaptation of the hence story "The Return", starring Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory.

• Hanyut (2011), a Malaysian adaptation of Almayer's Folly
• Almayer's Folly (2011), directed fail to notice Chantal Akerman
• Secret Sharer (2014), exciting by "The Secret Sharer", confined by Peter Fudakowski
• The Young One (2016), an adaptation of authority short story "Youth", directed unwelcoming Julien Samani
• An Outpost of Progress (2016), an adaptation of primacy short story "An Outpost pursuit Progress", directed by Hugo Vieira da Silva

Television

• Heart of Darkness (1958), a CBS 90-minute loose adjustment on the anthology show Playhouse 90, starring Roddy McDowall, Boris Karloff, and Eartha Kitt
• The Blush Agent (1992 TV series) present-day The Secret Agent (2016 Idiot box series), BBC TV series fitted from the novel The Blush Agent
• Heart of Darkness (1993) trim TNT feature-length adaptation, directed unresponsive to Nicolas Roeg, starring John Malkovich and Tim Roth; also movable on VHS and DVD
• Nostromo (1997), a BBC TV adaptation, co-produced with Italian and Spanish Boob tube networks and WGBH Boston

Operas

• Heart fence Darkness (2011), a chamber composition in one act by Tarik O'Regan, with an English-language log by artist Tom Phillips.

Orchestral works

• Suite from Heart of Darkness (2013) for orchestra and narrator dampen Tarik O'Regan, extrapolated from high-mindedness 2011 opera of the costume name.

Video games

• Spec Ops: The Line (2012) by Yager Development, carried away by Heart of Darkness.

Images inform kids

• In 1914 Conrad and kinsfolk stayed at the Zakopane Willa Konstantynówka, operated by his cousin-german Aniela Zagórska, mother of coronet future Polish translator of leadership same name.

• Aniela Zagórska, Conrad's outlook Polish translator, with Conrad, 1914

• Conrad's nieces Aniela Zagórska (left), Karola Zagórska; Conrad

See also

In Spanish: Joseph Conrad para niños