The Life of Joseph Conrad

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The Life of Joseph Conrad
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Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

• Born December 3, 1857 as Jozef Teodor Konrad
  Nalecz Korzeniowski
• Born to Polish parents in the Ukrainian town of
  Berdichev

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Eva Korzeniowski
Apollo Korzeniowski
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Family

• His father Apollo Korzeniowski was a poet and
  translator of English and French literature.
• He was arrested for conspiracy and was exiled
  with his family to Vologda in northern Russia.
• Died May 23, 1869
• Tuberculosis
• Mother - originally - Eva Bobrowska
• Parents opposed the marriage to Apollo
• Died April 18, 1865
• Tuberculosis
• In 1869, Joseph was sent to live with his uncle,
  Thaddeus Bobrowski
• Lived in Switzerland
• Major influence over Conrads life
• Allowed Conrad to go to sea

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Preparation

• Wished to serve in the Austrian navy
• Applied but was refused Austrian citizenship
• Traveled, in 1874, to Marseilles
• learned French, seamanship, and became financed
  by his uncle.

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Joseph Conrad in 1873 -- Age 16
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Voyages

• Started as a seamans apprentice
• an observer on harbor pilot boats
• Within two months, he took his first ocean
  voyage.
• Sailed on three voyages between 1874 and 1877

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Voyages

• Mavis
• April 1878-June 1878
• English steamship
• From Marseilles to Constantinople to Lowestoft.
• Ordinary Seaman
• Duke of Sutherland
• Oct. 1878-Oct. 1879
• From London to Sydney and back to London.
• Ordinary Seaman
• Europa
• Dec. 1879
• seven weeks
• Steamer
• Across the Mediterranean Sea
• Ordinary Seaman

• Loch Etive
• Aug. 1880-April 1881
• Wool Clipper
• From London to Sydney and back to London.
• Third Mate
• Palestine
• September 1881
• Wooden Barque
• From London to Bangkok.
• Second Mate
• Caught fire and was abandoned

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The Otago

• Conrads first command
• January 19, 1888 - June 1889
• From Singapore to Sydney and Mauritius

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Novels and Short Stories

• Most of his novels and short stories have the sea
  as a background for the action.
• The sea is also a symbolic parallel for their
  heroes inner turbulence.
• Theres little romantic interest in his novels.

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Novels and Short Stories

• 1886-wrote first short story The Black Mate
• submitted to a literary competition but was
  unsuccessful
• During the next three years, he began his first
  novel Almayers Folly
• completed in 1894

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Heart of Darkness

• Conrad continued writing diaries and journals on
  a Congo River Steamer
• These notes would eventually become the basis for
  Heart of Darkness
• It was first published in Blackwoods Magazine
• later appeared as a single volume

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Heart of Darkness

• Represents a radically new course in Conrads
  style.
• His earlier works were comparatively straight
  forward and objective
• Heart of Darkness is intensely psychological and
  analytical
• Includes a great deal of highly personal
  autobiographical details as well as purely
  symbolic elements.

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Personal Life

• Married Jessie George
• 1896 (17 years younger than he)
• Two sons born
• Borys 1898
• John 1906

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World War I

• When World War I broke out, Conrad, his wife, and
  two sons were in Poland
• barely escaped imprisonment
• Back in England, Conrad assembled his entire body
  of work, which appeared in 1920.

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Honors

• Conrad was offered a knighthood by the British
  government
• declined the offer
• Also declined honorary degrees from five
  universities.
• Lived without national honor but with literary
  honor instead.

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Death

• August 3, 1924
• Conrad died of a heart attack
• Buried in Canterbury

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Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski
1857 - 1924
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Heart of Darkness

• Joseph Conrad

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Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Conrad, whose original
name was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was
born near Berdichev, Poland (now in Ukraine), the
son of a Polish nobleman who was also a political
journalist and anarchist. From his father the boy
acquired a love of literature, including romantic
tales of the sea. He was orphaned at the age of
12, and when he was 16 years old he left
Russian-occupied Poland and made his way to
Marseille, France. For the next four years he
worked on French ships, ran guns for the Carlist
pretender to the Spanish throne, and became
involved in a love affair that ended in his
attempted suicide. He then entered the British
merchant service, becoming a master mariner and a
naturalized British subject in 1886 a few years
later he changed his name to sound more English.
Joseph Conrad
Most famous novels Almayers Folly (1889) Lord
Jim (1900) Heart of Darkness (1902) Nostromo
(1904) The Secret Agent (1907) Under Western Eyes
(1911)
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Heart of Darkness is Conrads most widely read
novel. One reason is that it lends itself to wide
range of interpretations. It can be read as..
1. As autobiography The account of a journey up
the Congo river that Conrad undertook in
the early 1890s. 2. As anticolonialism An
exposition of the brutality of Belgian
colonial rule. 3. As myth An ( Arthurian)
quest. 4. As classical or Norse mythology. 5.
As psychology or psychoanalysis A journey into
the Self. - and as a picture of the American
involvement in the Vietnam War
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Autobiography

• Conrad did, in fact, go up the Congo River in
  1890
• Like Marlow in the novel, he got the job to go
  to the Congo through his aunt.
• Like Marlow, he did not get along with the
  manager
• Like Marlow, he was sent to pick up an agent
  Klein !!
• Like Marlow, he fell ill and nearly died

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Congo in the 1890s
Inner Station
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Heart of Darkness Background

• After a long stint in the east had come to an
  end, he was having trouble finding a new
  position.
• With the help of a relative in Brussels he got
  the position as captain of a steamer for a
  Belgian trading company.
• Conrad had always dreamed of sailing the Congo
• Had to leave early for the job, the previous
  captain was killed in a trivial quarrel

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Heart of Darkness Background

• While traveling from Boma (at the mouth) to the
  company station at Matadi he met Roger Casement
  who told Conrad stories of the harsh treatment of
  Africans
• Conrad saw some of the most shocking and depraved
  examples of human corruption hed ever witnessed.
  He was disgusted by the ill treatment of the
  natives, the scrabble for loot, the terrible heat
  and the lack of water.
• He saw human skeletons of bodies left to rot -
  many were bodies of men from the chain gangs
  building the railroads.
• He found his ship was damaged.
• Dysentary was rampant as was malaria Conrad had
  to terminate his contract due to illness and
  never fully recovered

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Heart of Darkness Narrative Structure

• Framed Narrative
• Narrator begins
• Marlow takes over
• Narrator breaks in occasionally
• Marlow is Conrads alter-ego, he shows up in some
  of Conrads other works including Youth A
  Narrative and Lord Jim
• Marlow recounts his tale while he is on a small
  vessel on the Thames with some drinking buddies
  who are ex-merchant seamen. As he recounts his
  story the group sits in an all-encompassing
  darkness and pass around the bottle.