Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf Editions.
The Secret Sharer.
Joseph Conrad.
ContentsOpen
Purchase the entire
Coradella Collegiate
Bookshelf on CD at
http://collegebookshelf.net
Joseph Conrad. The Secret Sharer.
ContentsPurchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at
http://collegebookshelf.net
About the author
Joseph Conrad (December
3, 1857 - August 3, 1924) was a
Polish novelist.
Born Józef Teodor Na?e;cz Konrad Korzeniowski, on December 3,
1857 in Berdyczow, in what is now the Ukraine, he was brought up in
Russian-occupied Poland. His father, an impoverished aristocrat, writer,
and militant fighter, was arrested by the occupying regime for his patri-
otic activities, and was sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia. Shortly
after this, his mother died of tuberculosis in exile, and despite his being
allowed to return to Cracow, so did his father four years later.
Subsequently Conrad was brought up by his uncle. Conrad even-
tually abandoned his education at the age of 17 to become a seaman in
the French merchant navy. He lived an adventurous, buccaneering life
-- sailing off Marseilles and becoming involved in gunrunning and
political conspiracy. In 1878, after attempted suicide, Józef took service
on a British ship in order to avoid French military service. He gained
his Master Mariner's certificate, learned English before the age of 21,
to finally become a naturalized Briton in 1884. He lived in Lowestoft,
Suffolk, and later near Canterbury, Kent.
His first novel, Almayer's Folly, a story of Malaysia, was written in
English and published in 1895. It should be remembered that the
lingua franca at that time was French, which was Conrad's second
language, thus it is altogether remarkable that Conrad should write so
fluently and effectively in his third language.
His literary work bridges the gap between the classical literary
tradition of writers such as Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky
and the emergent modernist schools of writing. Interestingly, he de-
spised Dostoevsky, and Russian writers as