Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

In Fact Józef Teodor Konrad

Korzeniowski was the offspring of Apollo Korzeniowski and Ewa

nee Bobrowska born in Berdyczów (nowadays

Berdychiv, Ukraine). Both parents were polish, and Roman

Catholics

Joseph Conrad’s Life

1. In 1868 Conrad attended high school in Lemberg, Galicia; the following year he and his father moved to Cracow, where his father died.

2. In the autumn of 1874 Conrad went to Marseilles, where he entered the French marine service. While the next 20 years Conrad led a successful career as a ship's officer.

3. In June 1878 Conrad went for the first time to England. He worked as a seaman on English ships, and in 1880 he began his career as an officer in the British merchant service. His

voyages took him to Australia, India, Singapore, Java, Borneo, to those distant and exotic places which would provide the background for much of his fiction.

4. In 1886 he was naturalized as a British citizen. 1890 he made the journey to the Belgian Congo which inspired his great short novel The Heart of Darkness

The greatest writings and the literary outputs

In the early 1890s Conrad had begun to think about writing fiction based on his experiences in the East.

Although Conrad by now had a master's certificate, he was not obtaining the commands that he wanted. Almayer's Folly was published in 1895, and its favorable critical reception

encouraged Conrad to begin a new career as a writer.

Novels written chronologically:

1. An Outcast of the Islands (1896)

2. In The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897)

3. Lord Jim (1900)

4. Nostromo (1904) is probably Conrad's greatest novel.

5. Chance (1914), was a financial success

6. Victory (1915), Conrad's last important novel,

Sources :

www.encyclopedia.com

www.conrad-centre.w.interia.pl

Dominika Orzechowska & Edyta Księżopolska Gimnazjum 132