Early Years

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born British author and short-story writer who wrote in English but also translated his own works. Joseph Conrad’s original name was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. He adopted the pen name Joseph Conrad in April 1895 with the publication of his novel Almayer’s Folly. He’s mainly known for his novel “Heart of Darkness (1902),” and “Lord Jim (1900),” Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907) which the godfather of modern literature Vladimir Nabokov said was one of the four great novels.

Joseph Conrad was born in Berdychiv, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire; the region had once been part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland on 3 December 1857. His father Apollo Korzeniowski was a poet, translator, political activist and playwriter. In 1862 the family was forced to move to Russia because of his father’s political activities. Conrad’s mother Ewa Bobrowska died three years later in 1865 she was born in a noble family with a kind heart but fragile health. It was not until 1867 that Conrad and his father were allowed to return to Poland. joseph Conrad was his family’s only child, He never knew his mother. Conrad’s father tried his best to teach him by himself.  Shakespeare brought him into the orbit of English literature. Most of all, though, he read Polish Romantic poetry.

Young Conrad was sent for a year-long retreat to Kyiv and his mother’s family estate at Novofastiv [de] in the fall of 1866 due to health concerns

Apollo sent his kid to the region of Poland that was governed by Austria in December 1867. This region had enjoyed significant internal freedom and a degree of self-government for the previous two years. Following stays in Lwów and a number of smaller towns, they relocated to Kraków, also in Austrian Poland, on February 20, 1869. Kraków was the capital of Poland from 1596 to 1869. Conrad became an orphan at the age of eleven when Apollo Korzeniowski passed away a few months later, on May 23, 1869. Apollo had tuberculosis and had been extremely ill, just like Conrad’s mother.

Tadeusz Bobrowski, Ewa’s brother, was entrusted with the care of the young Conrad. Conrad’s ill health and his low academic performance cost his uncle a lot of money and created ongoing complications. Despite receiving tutoring, Conrad was a poor student who only performed well in geography.

Conrad, at fifteen, was sent by Bobrowski in August 1873 to his cousin in Lwów, who ran a modest boarding house for boys left orphaned by the 1863 Uprising; group conversations there were conducted in French.

Conrad had been working there for a little over a year when, in September 1874, his uncle took him back to Kraków after taking him out of Lwów’s school for unknown reasons.

In preparation for Conrad’s intended career as a merchant marine aboard French commerce ships, Bobrowski dispatched the sixteen-year-old to Marseilles, France, on October 13th, 1874. Additionally, his uncle gave him a monthly stipend (set at 150 francs).  Although Conrad had not finished secondary school, he was proficient in French (with a proper accent), had some knowledge of Latin, German, and Greek, was presumably well-versed in history and geography, and most likely had a strong interest in physics. He read a lot, especially Polish Romantic literature.

Conrad’s marine career was cut short in late 1877 when the Russian consul declined to provide the paperwork he required to continue serving. Conrad incurred debt as a result, and in March 1878, he made an attempt on his life. As a result of his survival and additional financial assistance from his uncle, he was able to get back to living normally.  Conrad enlisted in the British merchant marine in April 1878, nearly four years after spending time in France and on French ships.

He worked for the Red Ensign for the subsequent fifteen years. He served as a crew member on numerous ships as a steward, apprentice, able seaman, third mate, second mate, and first mate before eventually rising to the rank of captain.

Conrad worked on ships for 10 years and almost 8 months in the 19 years between the time he left Kraków in October 1874 and the time he signed off the Adowa in January 1894. Nine months of his nearly eight years at sea were spent as a passenger. In 1888–1889, he only served as a captain once, steering the barque Otago from Sydney to Mauritius.

Conrad started work on Almayer’s Folly, his debut novel, in the fall of 1889.

Conrad unwillingly retired from the sea at the age of 36 in 1894, for a variety of reasons, including poor health, a lack of ships, and the fact that he had grown so enamoured with writing that he had chosen a career as a writer. Published in 1895, Almayer’s Folly takes place on the east coast of Borneo. “Konrad” was obviously the third of his Polish given names; however, its use—in the anglicised version, “Conrad”—may also have been a tribute to the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz’s patriotic narrative poem, Konrad Wallenrod. Its publication marked his first use of the pen name “Joseph Conrad.”

Influential reviews like The Fortnightly Review and the North American Review, avant-garde publications like the Savoy, New Review, and The English Review, well-known short-story magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Harper’s Magazine, women’s journals like the Pictorial Review and Romance, widely read dailies like the Daily Mail and the New York Herald, and illustrated newspapers were all places where Conrad’s works were first published. In Between 1898 to 1906, he also contributed to the imperialist weekly magazine The Outlook.

Conrad wed Jessie George, an Englishwoman, on March 24, 1896. John and Borys, the couple’s two sons, were born. The senior, Borys, disappointed in his ability to learn and his moral character. Jessie was a simple, working-class girl who was sixteen years Conrad’s junior. She was the target of some rather scathing and cruel comments from his friends who thought it was strange that he chose her as his wife. But other biographers, like Frederick Karl, assert that Jessie gave Conrad what he required: a “straightforward, dedicated, quite capable” companion. According to Jones, despite the marriage’s challenges, “there can be no doubt that the relationship supported Conrad’s career as a writer,” which may have been considerably less prosperous without her.

Conrad had a strong interest in politics. Numerous of his works, beginning with Almayer’s Folly, support [this]. […] Nostromo expressed his concerns about these issues in greater detail; this was, of course, only natural for someone from a nation [Poland] where politics was a matter of life and death as well as daily living. Conrad himself too came from a politically very active family and social elite that claimed exclusive responsibility for state matters.

The essay “Autocracy and War” that Conrad wrote in 1905 is his most comprehensive and ambitious political statement to date.

Conrad passed away on August 3, 1924, most likely from a heart attack, at his home, Oswalds, in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England. Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski, a misspelt version of his native Polish name, was used to bury him in Canterbury Cemetery in Canterbury.  The Faerie Queene lines from Edmund Spenser, which he used as the epigraph of his final completed novel, The Rover, are inscribed on his gravestone:

Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, doth greatly please.

Conrad’s simple funeral was attended by a sizable audience.

Joseph Conrad’s Writing style

Joseph Conrad described himself as “a sort of seaman looking outwards and writing what he sees”. His work is notable for its great psychological penetration and its use of the narrative technique that earned him his reputation as a leading international figure in literature.

Contrary to what some people, including some who knew Conrad well, such as fellow novelist Henry James, believed, Conrad was always at heart a writer who sailed rather than a sailor who wrote, even when he was merely sending tasteful letters to his uncle and friends. Many of his paintings were inspired by his sailing adventures, although he also created pieces with a similar worldview but no maritime themes. He was extremely frustrated by how many detractors failed to understand this. He frequently wrote about life at sea and in far-off places rather than about life in Britain.

Readers may be inclined to regard Conrad’s life and work as one cohesive unit because he frequently used his own memories as literary material. His “vision of the world,” or aspects of it, is frequently discussed using quotes from his works, correspondence, and both private and public pronouncements. Najder cautions that this method creates a jumbled and false impression. “Uncritically combining literary and personal life leads to distortions in both areas. Conrad used his own experiences as the basis for his work, but the experiences should not be equated with the final product.”

Conrad drew inspiration for several of his characters from real people he had encountered.

A number of Conrad’s fictional episodes were inspired by real-world events or other literary works, in addition to his own experiences. The real-life 1880 tale of the SS Jeddah served as the inspiration for the first half of the 1900 book Lord Jim (the Patna episode), while James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, to some extent, served as inspiration for the second half. Amy Foster, a 1901 short story, was partially inspired by a passage from Ford Madox Ford’s The Cinque Ports (1900), in which a stranded German merchant ship sailor who was unable to communicate in English and was chased away by the locals found refuge in a pigsty.

Conrad drew inspiration for several of his characters from real people he had encountered.

A number of Conrad’s fictional episodes were inspired by real-world events or other literary works, in addition to his own experiences. The real-life 1880 tale of the SS Jeddah served as the inspiration for the first half of the 1900 book Lord Jim (the Patna episode), while James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, to some extent, served as inspiration for the second half. Amy Foster, a 1901 short story, was partially inspired by a passage from Ford Madox Ford’s The Cinque Ports (1900), in which a stranded German merchant ship sailor who was unable to communicate in English and was chased away by the locals found refuge in a pigsty.

Conrad only learned English in his thirties, having spoken fluent French and his native Polish since he was a young child. He had to know some German and Russian, and it is likely that he spoke some Ukrainian as a toddler (if only to the staff). Conrad spoke German “very fluently” and for a long time. He was formally a Russian subject up to the time of his naturalization as a British subject because Russia, Prussia, and Austria had split up Poland among themselves. His official papers up to this point were in Russian as a result. He knew enough Russian to get by.

However, Conrad decided to write his fiction in English.

Joseph Conrad’s  Life At Sea

Conrad sailed to numerous countries including the West Indies, Venezuela and France, from where he came back heavily enmeshed in debt. Conrad became heavily enmeshed in debt upon returning to Marseille and apparently unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide.

Conrad then went on to serve 16 years in the British merchant navy.

Joseph Conrad’s Writing Career and Personal Life

Back in London in the summer of 1889, Conrad took rooms near the Thames and, while waiting for a command, began to write Almayers Folly. In 1889, he went to Congo. What he saw, did, and felt in the Congo are largely recorded in “Heart of Darkness,” his most famous, finest, and most enigmatic story. The story is central to Conrad’s work and vision, and his experience there left him traumatised and in ill health for the rest of his life.

In 1895 he married the 22-year-old Jessie George, by whom he had two sons. His life as an author was plagued by poor health, near poverty, and difficulties of temperament which was alleviated after 1910, when his work: Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), and Under Western Eyes (1911), became financially stable. He was awarded a pension of £100.  Conrad was hampered by ill health for the rest of his life but he continued writing till his death in 1924.

He was praised for his power to depict life at sea and in the tropics and for his works’ qualities of romance, which in this context means his ability to use an elaborate prose style to illustrate a sordid event, albeit with an illusionary splendour.