About
Born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Berdichev (then Russian Empire, now Berdychiv, Ukraine) to Polish noble parents, Conrad was orphaned at twelve after the deaths of his exiled parents. He joined the French merchant navy in 1874, then the British merchant service in 1878, gaining British citizenship and a master mariner's certificate in 1886. After sixteen years at sea, including a traumatic command on the Congo in 1890, he published his first novel, Almayer's Folly, in 1895 under the name Joseph Conrad. Mastering English as his third language, he became a supreme prose stylist and a pioneer of modernist narrative techniques.
* 1857-12-03 — † 1924-08-03
Major works
- Almayer's Folly (1895)novel
- Heart of Darkness (1902)novella
- Lord Jim (1900)novel
- Nostromo (1904)novel
- The Secret Agent (1907)novel
Key milestones
- 1886Gained British citizenship and a master mariner's certificate.
- 1890Commanded a steamer on the Congo River, an experience that inspired Heart of Darkness.
- 1924Declined a knighthood and died of a heart attack in Kent.
Themes
colonialismidentityisolationmoralitymodernity
Sources: britannica.com · oxfordreference.com
