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“In the history of English literature there has never been anything like the history of Joseph Conrad; nor, so far as I am aware, has there been anything like him in any other European literature. He was a Pole of the landowning class, who became a Marseilles gun-runner at 20, an English master mariner at 29, and one of the greatest English novelists at 38.” • Muriel Bradbrook
Joseph Conrad Bio • 1857: Born JozefTeodorKonradKorzeniowski near Berdichev in Ukraine • 1862: Family exiled to a prison camp in Vologda, Russia because of father’s political activities. Mother dies in exile. • 1869: Father dies Jozef in Krakow, Poland, sporadic school attendance • 1873: First view of the sea during 3-month stay in Switzerland and northern Italy
1874: leaves Krakow for Marseilles • Conrad at age 17
Career as a Seaman: 1875-1894 • Highlights include: • Working way up from apprentice to a position of command • Journeys to West Indies, India, Asia, Africa • Illegal arms transport; attempted suicide; becoming a naturalized British citizen; getting published (short stories first)
“It was in 1868, when 9 years old or thereabouts, that while looking at a map of Africa of the time and putting my finger on the blank space then representing the unsolved mystery of that continent, I said to myself with absolute assurance and an amazing audacity which are no longer in my character now: ‘When I grow up I shall go there.” Conrad
The Congo: 1890 • Journeyed in the Congo as a riverboat captain • Used Heart of Darkness as a vehicle for his impressions
Conrad’s overall picture of the Congo in the novel is supported by much contemporary evidence. • Conrad wrote in his diary of his journey: “The country is ruined. Passengers in the steamer Roi de Belges have been able to see for themselves that from Bantja, half a day’s journey below our factory at Upoto, to Bumba inclusive, there is not an inhabited village left – that is to say four day’s steaming through a country formerly so rich, today entirely ruined.”
Career as a writer: 1894-1924 • Settles in England • Works as a writer • Gains international acclaim. Death in 1924.
Modernist Novel • Had achieved enough status as a writer that he was ready to experiment • This novel is interior, suggestively analytic, highly psychological • Symbolic nature of novel
Structure: Frame Narrative • Narrator Marlow Marlow