Joseph Conrad

By Chris Fletcher

Polish-born Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is widely considered to be one of the finest masters of the English language. His life at sea and in foreign ports around the world furnished most of the material for his books, which include Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, and perhaps his best-known story, "The Heart of Darkness." This beautifully illustrated volume, written by author Chris Fletcher, provides a thorough look at this complex author.

About the series:
The British Library is in a unique position when it comes to biographical research, especially concerning British authors. This revered institution boasts the world's largest collection of original manuscripts, as well as an outstanding collection of letters, personal diaries, first editions, and other literary treasures. The titles in this series take full advantage of this vast source of documentary evidence by illustrating each of these lively writers' biographies with state-of-the-art facsimiles of pertinent documents and reproductions of art from the period. Penned by expert biographers, each of these books also contains an index, further reading list, and a chronology of the writer's life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195214412
• ISBN13: 9780195214413
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.1" x 9.7"
• Age Range: 11 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 9

Customer Reviews

An incredible success story

Joseph Conrad was one of the world's greatest English writers. How he reached that position is a fascinating story. Born in the Ukraine to parents who were ardent Polish nationalists, Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski knew oppression and difficulties at a young age. Before he was born, the nation that was once known as Poland had been dismembered and incorporated into the German, Austrian and Russian Empires. All three nations were vigorous in their repression of Polish nationalism, with the Russians being especially harsh. After his difficult upbringing, he became a sailor, traveling all the world's oceans, starting at the bottom and eventually becoming a mate and then a captain. It was at this time that he started to write in earnest and fortunately, his talent was identified and nurtured. He gave up a life at sea to get married, write and raise children. Fortunately for us all, he was able to dedicate the time he needed to writing and produced a great deal of quality work. This book is a short, yet essentially complete biography of this extraordinary man, who succeeded despite such enormous odds. He survived the oppression of the Polish people, managed to live through harrowing adventures at sea and learned English well enough to write compelling novels. This is an inspiring story of dedication, hard work and perseverance.