Conrad is also noted not only for his stories of life at sea, but also his insights into human psychology, and his literary style, and for his depictions of imperialism and racial issues. Conrad writes in a rich, vivid prose style with a narrative technique that makes skillful use of breaks in linear chronology. His character development is powerful and very outstanding , but his outlook is generally depressing.
He was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, in an area of Poland that was part of Russia and is now part of the Soviet Union. The Poles were fighting for independence from Russia, and both parents were fiercely engaged in the struggle. Conrad had a father named Apollo and a mother named Eva. They were very loving and supported Conrad the best they could. Conrad’s father was arrested in 1861 for revolutionary activity, and the family was exiled to the remote Russian city of Vologda. On the journey there, four-year-old Conrad caught pneumonia. He remained a sickly child, and he suffered from ill health for the rest of his life.
Conditions in Vologda were very bad and unsanitary. The conditions were just too much for Conrad's mother and she couldn’t take it, the family was eventually allowed to move to a milder climate, but his mother Eva got sick and died of tuberculosis when Conrad was only seven years old. His father's spirit was broken, and so was his health. The Czarist government finally let him return with Conrad to the Polish city of Cracow, but unfortunately his father got sick too and died just like his mother did after a year with tuberculosis as well when Conrad was eleven and he was just devastated and lonely.
For the next several years Conrad was raised by his maternal grandmother. A stern but devoted uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski, saw to his education. Bobrowski had a lot to put up with. Conrad wasn't a very bright student. The bad thing was that he didn't show any particular talent for languages; even his Polish could have stood improvement or could have been better. So at the age of 14 he got the idea of land-locked Poland, which made him want to become a sailor. So Bobrowski packed him off for Europe with a tutor who was supposed to talk sense into him, but the tutor ended up pronouncing Conrad hopeless and just giving up on him.. In 1874, at the age of 16, Conrad traveled to Marseilles to learn the seaman's trade.
As well as speaking Polish, Joseph had been taught French by his instructor Mlle. Durand and as well from his father before he died. His uncle hired a student from Cracow University to continue his education, tutoring him in Latin, Greek, geography, and mathematics although Joseph hated all of the lessons. He was by nature full of nervous energy and physically active. His mad and frustrated tutor soon learned that from an early age he would learn to travel on the seas and go to the dark continent of Africa. In 1874 with his uncle’s blessing and as a way of avoiding conscription by the Russians, Conrad traveled to the port town of Marseilles in southern France. As an important hub of the French Merchant Marine, Conrad was soon able to find employment with several French vessels over the next four years. It was the beginning of his fifteen year career as seaman during which he would meet so many of the men who would figure largely in his works.
Life at sea was pretty challenging, but full of thrills and adventure and suited Conrad well who at times had a wild personality. He visited many of the major ports of the world and worked on every kind of vessel possible including the ‘Sainte Antoine’, ‘Duke of Sutherland’, ‘Palestine’, ‘Otago’ and ‘Tremolino’. He was involved with gunrunning and smuggling for a time, and in the off hours incurred a number of gambling debts. When he could not repay them he attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He survived and his uncle paid off his debts, but he lost his position with the French merchants so he joined the English ships ‘Mavis’ in 1878. Two years later he passed his third mate’s exam and in 1886 earned his Master’s certificate in the British Merchant Service and became a British Citizen. It was at this time that he changed his name to Joseph Conrad. His next few years of service took him to various ports including the Malay Archipelago, the Gulf of Siam and the Belgian Congo. Under the employ of the Societe Anonyme pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo in 1890 Conrad at last plunged into the ‘dark continent’ and wrote his ’Congo Diary’ that would later become The heart of Darkness.
The bad conditions of traveling to the Congo Free State and working on a paddle
steamer made Conrad angry with his already fragile health. He suffered gout and had periods of depression for many years. He returned to England weakened and suffering from fever and was hospitalized. While his sense of humor and irony was intact, the Congo had also caused a profound effect on his emotional health…it was infinitely more likely that the saneness of my friends should nurse the germ of early madness that I should turn into a writer of tales However, in a spare hour here and there Conrad had been working on Almayer’s Folly.
Little did Conrad know he was on his way to becoming one of the greatest 20th Century novelists, known for his mastery of atmosphere and dramatic realism, at times compared to Rudyard Kipling. Having now retired from the sea he settled in Kent County, England.
Almayer’s Folly was finally published with mixed reviews ,though mostly positive. In March of 1896 he married Jessie Emmeline George who was born in 1873 and later died in 1936 with whom he would have two sons, Borys born in 1898 and John born in 1906. Now that Conrad was retired and earnestly writing, he had numerous works first ongoing in such publications as Blackwood’s, Munsey’s and Harper’s. Other works published around this time include An Outcast of the Islands in1896, the Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’in 1897, Tales of Unrest in 1898, Lord Jim in 1900, collaborations with Ford Madox Ford The Inheritors in 1901 ,and Romance in 1903, Youth in 1902, The End of the Tether also in 1902, Typhoon in 1903, Nostromo in 1904, The Mirror of the Sea in 1906, The Secret Agent in 1907, A Set of Six in 1908, and last Under Western Eyes in 1911.
For Conrad, advancing the plot of the story is less important than exploring the inner workings of the minds of his characters. Rather than telling us about a character’s psychology, however, Conrad prefers to show us the character interacting with others, describing his every gesture, inflection, intonation, and expression. In many of his ways, Conrad used shifting time sequences and multiple perspectives.
Conrad uses a narrator, the experienced shipmaster Marlow, in several of his works, namely Youth, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Chance. Critics remain divided about the extent to which Marlow represents Conrad’s point of view and the extent to which Conrad maintains a good distance from his narrator. Marlow’s narratives meander freely through time and space, sometimes withholding crucial pieces of information for several chapters. For example, in the opening chapters of Lord Jim, it is clear that Jim has done something that most characters in the book consider both terrible and humiliating, but Marlow does not reveal precisely what it is that Jim has done until later in the narrative. Although Marlow clearly has opinions about the events of the tales he tells, Conrad is deliberately equivocal, leaving the reader free to make judgments.
Being one of the greatest descriptive writers of English fiction, Conrad stressed the natural settings of his stories, portraying them in lengthy passages of magnificently suggestive prose. His talent in describing the natural world is matched by his skill in providing psychological insights into his characters. The following selection from Heart of Darkness, describing Marlow’s river journey into the African jungle in search of the Belgian trader Kurtz, illustrates both Conrad’s narrative method and his literary style. It reveals the indirection of his technique, showing how the story of Kurtz is told through the narrator Marlow. At the same time the passage indicates Conrad’s extraordinary ability to remind an atmosphere of mystery and terror. His mastery of symbolism is also evident. Marlow’s voyage to the center of the “dark continent” represents his spiritual journey into the recesses of his own soul.
Its just amazing on how difficult it must have been, especially as he was subject, particularly during his writing life, to fits depression, which was increased by his constant need to grind out work in order to earn money. It is just amazing, considering this pressure, how little bad work he wrote, but the qualities which made him a careful sailor and incapable of producing second rate writing while he could do better. Never the less, he was not all strength. His weakness included a tendency to give up and let go on moments of wearing ness, and this in later days was increased by the recurrence of gout. These qualities did not prevent perhaps the most surprising thing was his achievements. He became known and loved by a wide circle of people in a country not his own, possessing a language which he never spoke like a native.
Although he was now receiving a pension Conrad suffered financial difficulties for a number of years; it was with the immediate commercial success of Chance in 1914 that was a turning point for him. Now living at his home ‘Oswalds’ in Bishopsbourne, Canterbury, he also traveled far including a trip to the United States in 1923 to give a reading where he was famous by the press and hoards of admiring readers. In 1924 he was offered a Knighthood but politely declined. He had become friend to many public figures and fellow authors including John Galsworthy and H.G. Wells. While he maintained a busy schedule he also continued his prodigious output of writing until his death, further publications including; The Arrow of Gold in 1914. Victory in 1915, The Shadow-Line in 1917 which evoked Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, The Rescue in 1920, and The Rover in 1923.
On August 3,1924 Conrad was not feeling well and later died at his home of a heart attack at the age of 66. Although most of his life he was given a Roman Catholic service at St. Thomas’s and now rests with his wife Jessie in the West gate Court Avenue public cemetery in Canterbury, England. His name is carved into the massive rough-hewn grave stone as was given at his birth, Joseph Theodore Conrad Korzeniowski.
Now today there is a foundation for Joseph Conrad and its called the Joseph Conrad Foundation Known as the (JCF) is chartered by the State of Texas 24 September 1996 is a non profit, non-political, non-sectarian corporation organized exclusively for cultural, educational and literary purposes, primarily for the furtherance of scholarship on the life, works and times of the Polish-born English novelist Joseph Conrad, ne Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, the publication of scholarly and popular works in the same fields, the support of exhibits and museums dedicated to Joseph Conrad, the distribution of materials and memorabilia concerning Joseph Conrad, the support of sailing ships, works concerning the days of sail and exhibits and museums concerned with maritime activities, and finally, the support of all efforts beneficial to the propagation of the life and works of Joseph Conrad.
The corporation is organized exclusively for cultural, educational, literary, scholarly and other non profit purposes. No part of any net earnings shall inure to the benefit of any private member or shareholder. So even though Joseph Conrad is gone, the great man him self and his legacy remains.
