Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness tells the story of Charles Marlow, an English man who journeys into the African jungle. The difference between Conrad's novella and other classic adventure fictions, like Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, is that Heart of Darkness goes beyond classic motifs of discovery and exploration to explicitly deal with questions of racism, exploitation and colonization. Marlow's mission in the story is to transport ivory and to take Kurtz, an experienced
...Although Joseph Conrad is now regarded by many critics as one of the most important twentieth-century writers, popular acclaim proved hard for the Polish-born writer to achieve during his lifetime. It was Victory, a psychological thriller of sorts, that finally broke through and helped the writer gain the mass readership his writing deserves.
Conrad reputedly wrote Under Western Eyes (1911) in response to Crime and Punishment, which he detested. The action takes place in Russia and Switzerland and shows Conrad's cynicism of revolutionary movements and ideals. It also condemns the impact on the poor and innocent by the actions of the powerful.
The Secret Sharer contains many of Conrad's favorite motifs. A young Captain is assigned to a ship near Siam, but surrounded by an unfamiliar crew he questions his own authority and ability. One night he rescues a naked man clinging to the side of the ship and stows him secretly in his cabin. The man then relates his tale of murder and escape from a nearby ship.
Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad's novels and short stories usually involve grizzled sailors past their prime battling their inner demons. The story Youth: A Narrative represents something of a departure from the formula that made Conrad famous. It's a semi-autobiographical tale that features Marlow, the same character that stood in for the author in Heart of Darkness recounting an early sea voyage that went terribly awry.
Although Joseph Conrad achieved acclaim as one of the masters of English-language fiction, his own life story is as fascinating and engaging as Heart of Darkness or Lord Jim. The volume The Mirror of the Sea is a collection of several autobiographical sketches, remembrances and essays that Conrad originally published in a number of European magazines.
Widely regarded as one of the most elegant stylists of English prose, Joseph Conrad set many of his works of fiction on boats and ships at sea. The Rescue is the last in a series of texts in which Conrad fictionalized his own life experiences as a sailor. The novel blends high seas adventure with romance and Conrad's trademark psychological complexity.
Although English was not his native tongue, Polish-born Joseph Conrad honed his language skills over his lifetime and would eventually become enshrined as one of the masters of English literature. As a sailor, he spent his free time during months-long voyages at sea writing stories, letters, and later, novels such as The Heart of Darkness. However, he regarded short stories as his favorite form, and the literary gems collected in Tales
...The Shadow Line is a novella by Joseph Conrad. A young man becomes captain of a ship in the Orient, and his experiences bring him to the threshold of his development into maturity: the shadow line. The story contrasts the young man and his expectations with the wiser experience of his elders. The novella has been read as a comment on the first world war, because of its preoccupation with camaraderie in the face of prolonged hardship.
Ranked by critics and literary experts as one of the most important English writers, Joseph Conrad contributed to the Western canon with such masterpieces as Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. A master of intricate psychological portraiture, Conrad brings this skill to bear in The End of the Tether, a story about an elderly man's attempt to come to grips with his own mortality.
One of the unifying themes that runs through Joseph Conrad's work is the problem of perception: two people can witness the same event and come away with completely diverging impressions of what occurred. Given his preoccupation with perception, it comes as no surprise that Some Reminiscences, the closest thing to a memoir that Conrad ever published, is a loosely interconnected series of observations, essays, and vignettes, rather than a
...12) A Set of Six
Regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the masters of English fiction, Joseph Conrad is known for novels and works of fiction such as The Heart of Darkness, Victory, and Lord Jim. The collection A Set of Six brings together a number of Conrad's shorter pieces, featuring a swashbuckling cast of characters that will appeal to fans of the action-adventure genre.
Want a glimpse into the mind of one of the most interesting and innovative writers of the twentieth century? In Notes on My Books, famed novelist Joseph Conrad discusses his creative process and lets loose some juicy details about the circumstances and inspirations that gave rise to timeless classics such as Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness.
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is an example of Conrad's later political writing, which moved away from his earlier, seafaring tales. The spy Mr. Verloc moves through London where he encounters anarchism, terrorism and revolutionary groups. Conrad also deals with the notion of exploitation.
The novel's treatment of terrorism caused it to be one of the three most cited works of literature in the American media post Spetember 11, 2001.
A young Dutch trader, Kaspar Almayer, marries Captain Lingard's adopted Malay daughter in the hopes of one day inheriting the captain's wealth. He moves to Borneo to run Lingard's trading post there, but while the captain is frittering away his fortune on a hopeless treasure hunt, Almayer's ventures fail, one after the other. In the hotpot of isolation, colonialism and frustrated desire, naming Almayer's true folly becomes complicated.
16) Amy Foster
In the nineteenth century, mass immigration changed the face of the world. Although we like to think of this cross-cultural pollination as being a positive trend in human history, the truth of the matter is not always clear. In Amy Foster, prose master Joseph Conrad takes on the dark side of immigration and the intermingling of vastly different cultures and worldviews.
An Outcast of the Islands is Joseph Conrad's second novel, first published in 1896 and inspired by Conrad's time as mate of the steamer The Vigar. Fleeing from scandal in Singapore, the disreputable Peter Willems hides out in a native village, only to betray his protectors in his lust for the daughter of the chief. The story features Tom Lingard and other characters who are also in Conrad's Almayer's Folly of 1895 and The Rescue
...Now enshrined among the most important writers of fiction in the Western literary canon, Joseph Conrad's stories often deal with the themes of the sea and nautical travel. In Falk: A Reminiscence, Conrad amplifies and extends a memory from his own childhood, turning a favorite family myth into a harrowing journey to the very limits of human morality. A must-read for fans of the action-adventure genre.
During his lifetime, Polish-born Joseph Conrad emerged as one of the masters of English prose. Best known for works such as The Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, many of Conrad's tales focus on seafaring men and expeditions into unknown lands. The Arrow of Gold, one of Conrad's later works, follows and expands upon these themes, relating the tale of a young sailor who is drawn into the fight to seat Don Carlos de Bourbon on the
...Often overlooked because of its controversial title, this novel from Joseph Conrad features a black West Indian protagonist, James Wait, who serves as a sailor on the merchant vessel known as Narcissus. Wait is overcome with illness on the voyage from Bombay to London, and the crew's reaction to his condition speaks volumes about differences in social class, psychology, and culture. A must-read for fans of maritime adventure tales, as well
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