Conrad, Joseph

Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of the greatest novelists and prose stylists in English literature. In 1874, Conrad went to sea and later joined (1878) an English merchant ship, becoming (1884) a master mariner as well as a British citizen. Retiring from the merchant fleet in 1894, he began his career as a novelist, and all of his novels are written in English, an acquired language. His notable early works include The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), Lord Jim (1900), and the novellas Youth (1902), Heart of Darkness (1902), and Typhoon (1903). The novels Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), and Chance (1913) are regarded by many as Conrad's greatest works. Of his later works, Victory (1915) is the best known. He also collaborated on two novels with Ford Madox Ford, The Inheritors (1901) and Romance (1903). Marked by a distinctive, opulent prose style, Conrad's novels combine realism and high drama. Their settings include nautical backgrounds as well as high society, and international politics. Conrad was a skilled creator of atmosphere and character; the impact of various situations was augmented by his use of symbolism. He portrayed acutely the conflict between non-western cultures and modern civilization. His characters exhibit the possibilities for isolation and moral deterioration in modern life.

Bibliography

See his complete works (26 vol., 1924–26); biographies by J. Baines (1960), F. M. Ford (1965), N. Sherry (1973, repr. 1997), F. R. Karl (1979), J. Meyers (1991), and J. Batchelor (1993); studies by E. Said (1966), R. Curle (1968), J. A. Palmer (1968), B. Johnson (1971), N. Sherry (1971, 1980), and I. Watt (1980); bibliography by T. G. Ehrsam (1969).

---

Conrad, Joseph

 orig. Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski

(born Dec. 3, 1857, Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Aug. 3, 1924, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.) Polish-British novelist and short-story writer. His father was a Polish patriot who was exiled to northern Russia, and Conrad was an orphan by age 12. He managed to join the French merchant marine and in 1878 the British merchant navy, where he pursued a career for most of the next 15 years; his naval experiences would provide the material for most of his novels. Though he knew little English before he was 20, he became one of the master English stylists. He is noted for tales in rich prose of dangerous life at sea and in exotic places, settings he used to reveal his real concern, his deeply pessimistic vision of the human struggle. Of his many novels, which include Almayer's Folly (1895), The Nigger of the “Narcissus” (1897), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), and Under Western Eyes (1911), several are regarded as masterpieces. He also published seven story collections; the novella “Heart of Darkness” (1902) is his most famous shorter work and the basis for Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979). Conrad's influence on later novelists has been profound.

---

Conrad, Joseph 

(pseudonym of Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski). Born Dec. 3, 1857, in Berdichev, Ukraine; died Aug. 3, 1924, in Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. British writer.

A Pole by nationality, Conrad was the son of a participant in the Polish Uprising of 1863. He worked as a sailor and became a British subject. After publishing the novel Almayer’s Folly (1895; Russian translation, 1923), Conrad devoted himself entirely to writing. He was attracted by adventure and by exotic countries, for example, the novel The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897; Russian translation, 1925) and the collection Tales of Unrest (1898; Russian translation, 1925). A young man’s quest for moral courage is the theme of his novel Lord Jim (1900; Russian translation, 1926). His short novel “Heart of Darkness” (1902) is an exposé of imperialist colonialists. Conrad’s heroes are outcasts from the bourgeois world, bravely confronting the blows of fate (”The End of the Tether,” 1902). Conrad’s belief that the social revolution would not succeed is reflected in his novels Nostromo (1904; Russian translation, 1928) and Under Western Eyes (1911), which reveals the influence of F. M. Dostoevsky. His later works, notably the novels Chance (1913; Russian translation, 1925) and The Shadow-Line (1917; Russian translation, 1925), show signs of an intellectual crisis. Conrad’s articles on G. de Maupassant (1904) and I. S. Turgenev (1917) are an important contribution to literary history.

WORKS

The Works, vols. 1–22. London-Toronto, 1923–28.
In Russian translation:
Sobr. soch., vols. 1–5. Moscow-Leningrad, 1924–26.
Izbrannoe, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1959.

REFERENCES

Urnov, M. V. Na rubezhe vekov: Ocherki angliiskoi literatury. Moscow, 1970.
Leavis, F. R. The Great Tradition. London, 1955.
Baines, J. J. Conrad. 3rd ed. London [1960].
Jablkowska, R. J. Conrad. Wroclaw, 1961.
Conrad: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. [1966].

M. A. NERSESOVA