Joseph Conrad: the story on HearLore

Joseph Conrad

Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on the 3rd of December 1857 in Berdychiv, a town in the Russian Empire that had once belonged to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was the only child of Apollo Korzeniowski, a writer and political activist, and his wife Ewa Bobrowska. The family name was associated with the Nałęcz coat-of-arms, a symbol of the Polish nobility known as the szlachta. From the moment of his birth, Conrad's life was inextricably bound to the political struggle for Polish independence. His father was a member of the Red political faction, which sought to restore Poland's pre-partition boundaries and abolish serfdom. This political commitment led to a series of traumatic displacements. In May 1861, the family moved to Warsaw, where Apollo joined the resistance against the Russian Empire. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel, a place Conrad would later describe as the starting point of his childhood memories. By the 9th of May 1862, the family was exiled to Vologda, a region north of Moscow known for its harsh climate. Conditions improved when they were moved to Chernihiv in January 1863, but the tragedy of the era struck again. On the 18th of April 1865, Ewa died of tuberculosis, leaving Apollo to raise their son alone. Apollo did his best to teach Conrad at home, introducing him to the works of Victor Hugo and Shakespeare, but it was Polish Romantic poetry that dominated his early consciousness. He read Adam Mickiewicz's Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna, and later Słowacki, whose soul he claimed was all of Poland. The boy's education was interrupted by his uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski, who took him in after Apollo's death on the 23rd of May 1869. At eleven years old, Conrad was orphaned and placed under the care of his uncle, a man who viewed his nephew's poor health and lack of discipline as a constant source of financial and emotional strain. The young Conrad was not a good student, excelling only in geography, and his uncle hoped that physical work would harden him. By the autumn of 1871, the thirteen-year-old announced his intention to become a sailor, a decision that would define the rest of his life.

The Merchant Marine

Conrad's entry into the maritime world began in Marseille, France, in the autumn of 1874, when he was sent to a boarding house run by a cousin. He was fifteen years old and had been given a monthly stipend of 150 francs to pursue a merchant-marine career. His social life was intense, often stretching his budget, and he formed friendships that would later influence his writing. One such friend was a Corsican merchant seaman named Dominique Cervoni, who became the inspiration for the title character of the 1904 novel Nostromo. Conrad's maritime career was not without peril. In late 1877, his service was interrupted when the Russian consul refused to provide documents needed for him to continue sailing. This bureaucratic obstacle left him in debt and precipitated a suicide attempt in March 1878. He survived, receiving financial aid from his uncle to resume his life. After nearly four years in France, he joined the British merchant marine in April 1878, enlisting under the Red Ensign. For the next fifteen years, he served as crew member, third mate, second mate, and first mate, eventually achieving the rank of captain. His sole captaincy occurred between 1888 and 1889, when he commanded the barque Otago from Sydney to Mauritius. During this period, he also sent five letters to Joseph Spiridion, a Pole he had befriended in Cardiff, which are his first preserved texts in English. These letters reveal a man who had abandoned his hope for the future and his Panslavic ideas, accepting England as a possible refuge. He worked on a variety of ships, including the Torrens, on which he made two round trips between London and Adelaide between November 1891 and July 1893. It was on the Torrens that he met two young Englishmen, John Galsworthy and Edward Lancelot Sanderson, who would become important friends. Galsworthy, a future novelist, modeled the protagonist of his first literary attempt, The Doldrums, after Conrad. Conrad completed his last long-distance voyage as a seaman on the 26th of July 1893 when the Torrens docked in London. He had spent just over eight years at sea, with nine months as a passenger, and nearly ten years in port. The physical toll of his life at sea was significant, but it was the mental burden that would eventually drive him to write.

When was Joseph Conrad born and where was he born?

Joseph Conrad was born on the 3rd of December 1857 in Berdychiv, a town in the Russian Empire that had once belonged to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

What was the real name of the author known as Joseph Conrad?

The real name of the author known as Joseph Conrad was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski.

When did Joseph Conrad die and where was he buried?

Joseph Conrad died on the 3rd of August 1924 at his house Oswalds in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England, and was interred at Canterbury Cemetery under a misspelled version of his original Polish name.

Which novel by Joseph Conrad was inspired by his experiences in the Congo Free State?

Joseph Conrad wrote the novella Heart of Darkness in 1899, which was inspired by his own experiences in the Congo Free State.

Who was the wife of Joseph Conrad and when did they get married?

Joseph Conrad married an Englishwoman named Jessie George on the 24th of March 1896, and the couple had two sons named Borys and John.

The Writer's Burden

In the autumn of 1889, Conrad began writing his first novel, Almayer's Folly. He was thirty-six years old when he reluctantly gave up the sea in 1894, partly due to poor health and partly because he had become fascinated with writing. Almayer's Folly, set on the east coast of Borneo, was published in 1895 and marked his first use of the pen name Joseph Conrad. The novel was a critical success, though it was Edward Garnett, a young publisher's reader, who played a key role in its publication. Garnett was initially uncertain about the quality of Conrad's English, but his wife, Constance Garnett, saw his foreignness as a positive merit. Conrad's writing style was heavily influenced by his desire to capture the reader's attention and to make them see, hear, and feel the world he was describing. He was a prose poet of the highest order, using his own memories as literary material. He wrote more often about life at sea and in exotic parts than about life on British land because he knew little about everyday domestic relations in Britain. His works were often set in Dutch and Belgian colonies, rather than the British Empire, which allowed him to critique the effects of colonialism without the embarrassment of dividing his loyalty. He wrote about the Malay states, which theoretically came under the suzerainty of the Dutch government, and the Congo, which was exploited by King Leopold II of Belgium. His novella Heart of Darkness, published in 1899, was inspired by his own experiences in the Congo Free State. He befriended Roger Casement, who was also working for the Belgian company, and who later became active in Irish Republicanism. Conrad's writing was not without controversy. He was accused of plagiarism by some, but he argued that he was not imitating but continuing the work of his masters. He borrowed from other authors, including Polish and French writers, and used their texts as raw material. He had a phenomenal memory for texts and remembered details, but he changed their character and inserted them within novel structures. He was not completely original, but he wrote very little that could possibly be mistaken for the work of anyone else. His works were often set in isolated or confined circumstances, and he chose to have his characters play out their destinies in such settings. He was keenly conscious of tragedy in the world and in his works, and he believed that the tragedy began as soon as you knew of your slavery.

The Personal Struggle

Conrad was a reserved man, wary of showing emotion, and he scorned sentimentality. His manner of portraying emotion in his books was full of restraint, scepticism, and irony. He suffered throughout his life from ill health, both physical and mental. In 1891, he was hospitalised for several months, suffering from gout, neuralgic pains in his right arm, and recurrent attacks of malaria. He also complained of swollen hands, which made writing difficult. He had a phobia of dentistry, neglecting his teeth until they had to be extracted. In one letter, he remarked that every novel he had written had cost him a tooth. His physical afflictions were, if anything, less vexatious than his mental ones. In his letters, he often described symptoms of depression, and the evidence is so strong that it is nearly impossible to doubt it. He attempted suicide in March 1878, by shooting himself in the chest with a revolver. He survived, and received further financial aid from his uncle. In 1888, during a stop-over on Mauritius, he developed a couple of romantic interests. One of these was described in his 1910 story A Smile of Fortune, which contains autobiographical elements. He flirted with Alice Jacobus, the daughter of a local merchant, and with Eugenie Renouf, the sister of his friend Captain Gabriel Renouf. Eugenie was already engaged to marry her pharmacist cousin, and after the rebuff, Conrad did not pay a farewell visit but sent a polite letter to Gabriel Renouf. On the 24th of March 1896, Conrad married an Englishwoman, Jessie George. The couple had two sons, Borys and John. The elder, Borys, proved a disappointment in scholarship and integrity. Jessie was an unsophisticated, working-class girl, sixteen years younger than Conrad. To his friends, she was an inexplicable choice of wife, and the subject of some rather disparaging and unkind remarks. However, according to other biographers, Jessie provided what Conrad needed, namely a straightforward, devoted, quite competent companion. The couple rented a long series of successive homes, mostly in the English countryside. Conrad, who suffered frequent depressions, made great efforts to change his mood; the most important step was to move into another house. His frequent changes of home were usually signs of a search for psychological regeneration. Between 1910 and 1919, Conrad's home was Capel House in Orlestone, Kent, which was rented to him by Lord and Lady Oliver. It was here that he wrote The Rescue, Victory, and The Arrow of Gold. Except for several vacations in France and Italy, a 1914 vacation in his native Poland, and a 1923 visit to the United States, Conrad lived the rest of his life in England.

The Political Exile

Conrad's political views were complex and often contradictory. He was a man who kept his distance from partisan politics and never voted in British national elections. He accused social democrats of his time of acting to weaken the national sentiment, the preservation of which was his concern. He resented some socialists' talk of freedom and world brotherhood while keeping silent about his own partitioned and oppressed Poland. Before that, in the early 1880s, letters from his uncle Tadeusz show Conrad apparently having hoped for an improvement in Poland's situation not through a liberation movement but by establishing an alliance with neighbouring Slavic nations. This had been accompanied by a faith in the Panslavic ideology, a conviction that Poland's superior civilization and historic traditions would let her play a leading role in the Panslavic community. Conrad's alienation from partisan politics went together with an abiding sense of the thinking man's burden imposed by his personality. He wrote H. G. Wells that the latter's 1901 book, Anticipations, seemed to presuppose a sort of select circle to which you address yourself, leaving the rest of the world outside the pale. In a 1922 letter to mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell, Conrad explained his own distrust of political panaceas. He believed that human nature was weak and that democracy offered boundless opportunities for demagogues and charlatans. He kept his distance from partisan politics, and never voted in British national elections. He accused social democrats of his time of acting to weaken the national sentiment, the preservation of which was his concern. He resented some socialists' talk of freedom and world brotherhood while keeping silent about his own partitioned and oppressed Poland. In 1914, Conrad and his family visited Poland, at the urging of Józef Retinger. They arrived in Kraków on the 28th of July 1914, the day war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. As the city lay only a few miles from the Russian border, there was a risk of being stranded in a battle zone. With wife Jessie and younger son John ill, Conrad decided to take refuge in the mountain resort town of Zakopane. They left Kraków on the 2nd of August. A few days after arrival in Zakopane, they moved to the Konstantynówka pension operated by Conrad's cousin Aniela Zagórska. Zagórska introduced Conrad to Polish writers, intellectuals, and artists who had also taken refuge in Zakopane, including novelist Stefan Żeromski and Tadeusz Nalepiński. Conrad aroused interest among the Poles as a famous writer and an exotic compatriot from abroad. He charmed new acquaintances, especially women. However, Marie Curie's physician sister, Bronisława Dłuska, openly berated Conrad for having used his great talent for purposes other than bettering the future of his native land. But thirty-two-year-old Aniela Zagórska, Conrad's niece who would translate his works into Polish in 1923, 39, idolised him, kept him company, and provided him with books. He particularly delighted in the stories and novels of the ten-years-older, recently deceased Bolesław Prus, who also had visited Zakopane. Conrad, who was noted by his Polish acquaintances to still be fluent in his native tongue, participated in their impassioned political discussions. He declared presciently, as Józef Piłsudski had earlier in 1914 in Paris, that in the war, for Poland to regain independence, Russia must be beaten by the Central Powers, and the Central Powers must in turn be beaten by France and Britain. After many travails and vicissitudes, at the beginning of November 1914, Conrad managed to bring his family back to England. On his return, he was determined to work on swaying British opinion in favour of restoring Poland's sovereignty.

The Final Years

Conrad's final years were marked by a struggle with his health and a growing sense of isolation. He died on the 3rd of August 1924 at his house, Oswalds, in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England, probably of a heart attack. He was interred at Canterbury Cemetery, Canterbury, under a misspelled version of his original Polish name, as Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski. Inscribed on his gravestone are the lines from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene which he had chosen as the epigraph to his last complete novel, The Rover. His modest funeral took place amid great crowds. His old friend Edward Garnett recalled bitterly that had Anatole France died, all Paris would have been at his funeral. Conrad's wife Jessie died twelve years later, on the 6th of December 1936, and was interred with him. In 1996, his grave was designated a Grade II listed structure. Conrad, though nominally a Catholic, is described by biographer Jeffrey Meyers as having been an atheist. Like his wife Jessie, he was nominally Catholic but actually an atheist. In his final years, Conrad continued to write, though he faced increasing difficulties. He was keenly conscious of tragedy in the world and in his works, and he believed that the tragedy began as soon as you knew of your slavery. He claimed that he never kept a diary and never owned a notebook, but after his death, Richard Curle published a heavily modified version of Conrad's diaries describing his experiences in the Congo. In 1978, a more complete version was published as The Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces. The first accurate transcription was published in Robert Hampson's Penguin edition of Heart of Darkness in 1995. Conrad's final years were also marked by a growing sense of isolation and a struggle with his health. He was a man who kept his distance from partisan politics and never voted in British national elections. He accused social democrats of his time of acting to weaken the national sentiment, the preservation of which was his concern. He resented some socialists' talk of freedom and world brotherhood while keeping silent about his own partitioned and oppressed Poland. In 1914, Conrad and his family visited Poland, at the urging of Józef Retinger. They arrived in Kraków on the 28th of July 1914, the day war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. As the city lay only a few miles from the Russian border, there was a risk of being stranded in a battle zone. With wife Jessie and younger son John ill, Conrad decided to take refuge in the mountain resort town of Zakopane. They left Kraków on the 2nd of August. A few days after arrival in Zakopane, they moved to the Konstantynówka pension operated by Conrad's cousin Aniela Zagórska. Zagórska introduced Conrad to Polish writers, intellectuals, and artists who had also taken refuge in Zakopane, including novelist Stefan Żeromski and Tadeusz Nalepiński. Conrad aroused interest among the Poles as a famous writer and an exotic compatriot from abroad. He charmed new acquaintances, especially women. However, Marie Curie's physician sister, Bronisława Dłuska, openly berated Conrad for having used his great talent for purposes other than bettering the future of his native land. But thirty-two-year-old Aniela Zagórska, Conrad's niece who would translate his works into Polish in 1923, 39, idolised him, kept him company, and provided him with books. He particularly delighted in the stories and novels of the ten-years-older, recently deceased Bolesław Prus, who also had visited Zakopane. Conrad, who was noted by his Polish acquaintances to still be fluent in his native tongue, participated in their impassioned political discussions. He declared presciently, as Józef Piłsudski had earlier in 1914 in Paris, that in the war, for Poland to regain independence, Russia must be beaten by the Central Powers, and the Central Powers must in turn be beaten by France and Britain. After many travails and vicissitudes, at the beginning of November 1914, Conrad managed to bring his family back to England. On his return, he was determined to work on swaying British opinion in favour of restoring Poland's sovereignty.