Marlow, a ferry-boat captain on foreign assignment in the Congo, searches for the legendary and feared Mr. Kurtz, unprepared for what he will find.
Joseph Conrad (originally J zef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski)
was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under Tsarist
autocracy. His parents, ardent Polish patriots, died when he was a
child, following their exile for anti-Russian activities, and he
came under the protection of his tradition-conscious uncle,
Thaddeus Bobrowski, who watched over him for the next twenty-five
years.
In 1874 Bobrowski conceded to his nephew's passionate desire to go
to sea, and Conrad travelled to Marseilles, where he served in
French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an
apprentice.
In 1886 he obtained British nationality and his Master's
certificate in the British Merchant Service. Eight years later he
left the sea to devote himself to writing, publishing his first
novel, Almayer's Folly, in 1895. The following year he married
Jessie George and eventually settled in Kent, where he produced
within fifteen years such modern classics as Youth, Heart of
Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under
Western Eyes.
He continued to write until his death in 1924. Today Conrad is
generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction in
English - his third language. He once described himself as being
concerned 'with the ideal value of things, events and people'; in
the Preface to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' he defined his task as
'by the power of the written word ... before all, to make you see'.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
