1. The Life of Joseph Conrad

2. Joseph Conrad ( )
Born December 3, 1857 as Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski
Born to Polish parents in the Ukrainian town of Berdichev

3. Apollo Korzeniowski
Eva Korzeniowski

4. Family
His father Apollo Korzeniowski was a poet and translator of English and French literature.
He was arrested for conspiracy and was exiled with his family to Vologda in northern Russia.
Died: May 23, 1869
Tuberculosis
Mother - originally - Eva Bobrowska
Parents opposed the marriage to Apollo
Died: April 18, 1865
In 1869, Joseph was sent to live with his uncle, Thaddeus Bobrowski
Lived in Switzerland
Major influence over Conrad’s life
Allowed Conrad to go to sea

5. Preparation Wished to serve in the Austrian navy
Applied but was refused Austrian citizenship
Traveled, in 1874, to Marseilles
learned French, seamanship, and became financed by his uncle.

6. Joseph Conrad in Age 16

7. Voyages Started as a seaman’s apprentice
an observer on harbor pilot boats
Within two months, he took his first ocean voyage.
Sailed on three voyages between 1874 and 1877

8. Voyages Loch Etive Palestine September 1881 Wooden Barque Europa
Mavis
April 1878-June 1878
English steamship
From Marseilles to Constantinople to Lowestoft.
Ordinary Seaman
Duke of Sutherland
Oct Oct. 1879
From London to Sydney and back to London.
Europa
Dec. 1879
seven weeks
Steamer
Across the Mediterranean Sea
Loch Etive
Aug April 1881
Wool Clipper
From London to Sydney and back to London.
Third Mate
Palestine
September 1881
Wooden Barque
From London to Bangkok.
Second Mate
Caught fire and was abandoned

9. The Otago Conrad’s first command January 19, 1888 - June 1889
From Singapore to Sydney and Mauritius

10. Novels and Short Stories
Most of his novels and short stories have the sea as a background for the action.
The sea is also a symbolic parallel for their heroes’ inner turbulence.
There’s little romantic interest in his novels.

11. Novels and Short Stories
1886-wrote first short story “The Black Mate”
submitted to a literary competition but was unsuccessful
During the next three years, he began his first novel Almayer’s Folly
completed in 1894

12. Heart of Darkness
Conrad continued writing diaries and journals on a Congo River Steamer
These notes would eventually become the basis for Heart of Darkness
It was first published in Blackwood’s Magazine
later appeared as a single volume

13. Heart of Darkness Represents a radically new course in Conrad’s style.
His earlier works were comparatively straight forward and objective
Heart of Darkness is intensely psychological and analytical
Includes a great deal of highly personal autobiographical details as well as purely symbolic elements.

14. Personal Life Married Jessie George Two sons born
(17 years younger than he)
Two sons born
Borys: 1898
John: 1906

15. World War I
When World War I broke out, Conrad, his wife, and two sons were in Poland
barely escaped imprisonment
Back in England, Conrad assembled his entire body of work, which appeared in 1920.

16. Honors Conrad was offered a knighthood by the British government
declined the offer
Also declined honorary degrees from five universities.
Lived without national honor but with literary honor instead.

17. Death August 3, 1924 Conrad died of a heart attack
Buried in Canterbury

18. Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski: 1857 - 1924

19. Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness

20. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Joseph Conrad Most famous novels:
Conrad, whose original name was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was born near Berdichev, Poland (now in Ukraine), the son of a Polish nobleman who was also a political journalist and anarchist. From his father the boy acquired a love of literature, including romantic tales of the sea. He was orphaned at the age of 12, and when he was 16 years old he left Russian-occupied Poland and made his way to Marseille, France. For the next four years he worked on French ships, ran guns for the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, and became involved in a love affair that ended in his attempted suicide. He then entered the British merchant service, becoming a master mariner and a naturalized British subject in 1886; a few years later he changed his name to sound more English.
Joseph Conrad
Most famous novels:
Almayer’s Folly (1889)
Lord Jim (1900)
Heart of Darkness (1902)
Nostromo (1904)
The Secret Agent (1907)
Under Western Eyes (1911)

21. Heart of Darkness is Conrad’s most widely read novel.
One reason is that it lends itself to wide range of interpretations.
It can be read as…..
1. As autobiography: The account of a journey up the Congo river that Conrad undertook in the early 1890’s.
2. As anticolonialism: An exposition of the brutality of Belgian colonial rule.
3. As myth: An ( Arthurian) quest.
4. As classical or Norse mythology.
5. As psychology or psychoanalysis: A journey into the Self.
- and as a picture of the American involvement in the Vietnam War

22. Autobiography
Conrad did, in fact, go up the Congo River in 1890
Like Marlow in the novel, he got the job to go to the Congo through his aunt.
Like Marlow, he did not get along with the manager
Like Marlow, he was sent to pick up an agent Klein !!
Like Marlow, he fell ill and nearly died

23. Congo in the 1890’s
Inner Station

24. Heart of Darkness Background
After a long stint in the east had come to an end, he was having trouble finding a new position.
With the help of a relative in Brussels he got the position as captain of a steamer for a Belgian trading company.
Conrad had always dreamed of sailing the Congo
Had to leave early for the job, the previous captain was killed in a trivial quarrel

25. Heart of Darkness Background
While traveling from Boma (at the mouth) to the company station at Matadi he met Roger Casement who told Conrad stories of the harsh treatment of Africans
Conrad saw some of the most shocking and depraved examples of human corruption he’d ever witnessed. He was disgusted by the ill treatment of the natives, the scrabble for loot, the terrible heat and the lack of water.
He saw human skeletons of bodies left to rot - many were bodies of men from the chain gangs building the railroads.
He found his ship was damaged.
Dysentary was rampant as was malaria; Conrad had to terminate his contract due to illness and never fully recovered

26. Heart of Darkness Narrative Structure
Framed Narrative
Narrator begins
Marlow takes over
Narrator breaks in occasionally
Marlow is Conrad’s alter-ego, he shows up in some of Conrad’s other works including “Youth: A Narrative” and Lord Jim
Marlow recounts his tale while he is on a small vessel on the Thames with some drinking buddies who are ex-merchant seamen. As he recounts his story the group sits in an all-encompassing darkness and pass around the bottle.