2. Biographical Facts
•Born December 3, 1857, in Poland
•Only child of Apollo and Ewa Korzeniowski,
members of Polish aristocracy
3. •1861: Conrad’s father was an intellectual, writer,
and Polish patriot at a time when Poland was part of
the Russian Empire; Apollo arrested for
revolutionary activities; family is exiled to Russia;
harsh climate causes hardships and illness (TB)
•1865 Conrad’s mother dies in Chernigov, Russia;
father, because of his own poor health, allowed to
relocate with seven-year-old son in Austrian Poland
4. •1869: father and son move to Krakow, where
Apollo dies; eleven-year-old orphaned child
becomes ward of mother’s brother Tadeusz
Bobrowski, apparently a kindly man
5. Because doctors recommended a seaside environment
for Joseph’s health, the moved 4
to France. As a young
man Conrad lived on his uncle’s funds and made
several sea voyages as a sailor.
6. 1874-77 Teenage Conrad goes to Marseilles, where
he enters French merchant marine; during these
years he completes a number of voyages to the
Caribbean and in 1877 he may have engaged in
some gunrunning on behalf of Spanish rebels.
Marseilles, France
3
7. 1878 In February Conrad is presumed to have
shot himself in the chest, an incident that for years
was disguised as a duel. Was this a drastic
reaction to an unhappy love affair?…
8. More adventures…at the age of 17 Conrad
had signed on his first English ship—served
on 18 different vessels—worked up the ranks:
second mate, first mate, finally to captain…
•In addition to smuggling guns, Conrad at one
point had to run his ship aground to avoid
capture for smuggling.
10. When he was second mate on a ship, it caught fire and
sank; the crew survived in open boats until they
reached land…
1886 Conrad became a British citizen
11. *1890 Conrad was in Belgium Congo as part of a
European trading company but left before the
year ended.
He apparently was weakened by malaria and his
psychological and moral senses were shaken by
his witnessing the exploitation of the natives in
Africa
12. Despondent about working opportunities and earning
small wages, Conrad began writing his first novel
Almayer’s Folly.
The book, which received favorable critical notice,
describes the turmoil and adventures of his early
years at sea.
13. It is interesting to note that at this point in
his life Conrad was conversing daily in
Polish, writing letters in French, and
thinking in English as he worked on the
manuscript of Almayer’s Folly!
14. Conrad’s middle years were
peaceful and relatively
uneventful.
In 1896 he married Jessie
George and the family rented a
farm in Kent (England).
The Conrads had two sons:
Borys and John.
15. Apparently Conrad was not especially close to his sons because
of his aloof personality.
Personal troubles included bouts of severe illness as well the
anguish of writing.
His writing was, however, critically well received.
Conrad supplemented the family income by writing short
adventure fiction for popular magazines.
16. Conrad …
•had eight books published in his lifetime
•declined a knighthood in 1924
•died of a heart attack August 7, 1924, after years of ill health
•buried in Canterbury, England
Canterbury, England
(Kent)
17. Conrad as an author…
Four major contributions to England and to world literature:
1. His unique style
2. The additions of new settings and genre to the world of
literature
3. Creation of the psychological story
4. Creation of political fiction—spy novel, espionage
18. Conrad created excitement by putting the emphasis on the
interior lives of his characters.
Conrad’s work represents a remarkable feat because he was
already an adult by the time he had learned to read and speak
English.
19. His work is also remarkable for the
writer’s precise descriptions of exotic
settings—however the plot tends to be
slow-moving.
In Conrad’s era, the writings of Sigmund Freud
and other psychological theorists opened new
aspects of the human personality.
20. Heart of Darkness was written in the years prior to World War I
and represents a transition between Victorian literature and the
Modern British literature of the post-war era.
Popular Victorian adventure
writers included Rudyard
Kipling and H.R. Haggard,
who took readers into exotic
locales usually associated
with the far-flung locations of
the British Empire.
In novels such as Heart of Darkness, events are
filtered through the perceptions and minds of
characters who are changed by what they see and
experience.
21. • His major focus was the capacity of human
beings to endure—under extreme conditions—the
constant threat of the dissolution of human
integrity and a surrender to the darkness that he
saw as the essential heart of the entire universe.
His works always focus on human beings under
stress, and he never comes to clear conclusions
about why people behave as they do. This
ambiguity is one of the traits that mark him as a
transitional figure between mainstream
nineteenth-century novelists and the modern
writers of the twentieth century who were
influenced by him.
22. • The notion of “voyage” in a work y Conrad
translates to a voyage of self-discovery.
• The question of loyalty, so crucial for the
survival of a ship’s crew, appears as a question
of the general frailty of human relationships
and the limits of self-knowledge.
• The menacing jungles, vast oceans, and exotic
people that confront the characters become
metaphors for the hidden depths of the self.
• Telling tales set around the globe, Conrad
charts a geography of the human soul.
23. The result in the writings of Conrad is that much of the action
is internal or psychological, which was to be more typical of
Modern post-war British literature.
Symbols to look for…
Darkness—consider multiple meanings
Voyage—another journey theme; this is a quest but what type
of quest?
24. Fog—literal and figurative (impaired perception,
lack of understanding)
This lack of clarity of understanding is also more
Modern than Victorian.
25. Knitting women—who are these females?
Vegetation—note the references and associations with death
Rivets—represent civilization; how effective are they?
26. Book—left beside a stack of firewood; whose is it? Watch for it…
Jungle—isolation, animalistic side of man…anything else?
Structure:
Framed narrative with
shifts…be alert for change in
narrative voice or change in
time/place…
Also be alert for IRONY…
Snakes—recurrent symbol;
used mostly metaphorically;
linked to biblical image of
original sin
27. Themes of the novel?
Be alert…what does the story have to say about evil,
about humankind, about exploitation of others…?
28. What does the title mean?
Heart of Darkness
(Think about
more than one
explanation.)
