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Conrad mined his life for material, but chafed at being called a “writer of the sea.”Illustration by Riccardo Vecchio

In March, 1893, John Galsworthy—a product of Harrow and Oxford who had recently passed the English bar exam—was boarding the passenger ship Torrens, in Port Adelaide, when he noticed a small man with black hair boisterously loading cargo. In a letter home, a month into the voyage, he described “a capital chap,” Polish, somewhat odd-looking, with “a fund of yarns on which I draw freely.” Galsworthy’s sister credited this encounter with turning him away from the law. By early 1897, Galsworthy had assembled a book of short stories, and his Polish friend, who had engineered a midlife career change of his own from British seaman to English novelist, under the name Joseph Conrad, was writing to Edward Garnett, who worked as a publisher’s reader—a sort of grand scout—asking him to look out for a manuscript by “my literary! friend.”

Mostly, though, the favors travelled in the other direction. For the next couple of decades, Galsworthy served as Conrad’s consigliere—l

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Joseph Conrad

Polish-British writer (1857–1924)

For other uses, see Joseph Conrad (disambiguation).

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Polish:[ˈjuzɛftɛˈɔdɔrˈkɔnratkɔʐɛˈɲɔfskʲi]^ⓘ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and story writer.^[2]^{[note 1]} He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.^{[note 2]} He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.^{[note 3]}

Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others,^{[note 4]} though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been ada

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Edward W. Said locates Joseph Conrad's fear of personal disintegration in his constant re-narration of the past. Using the author's personal letters as a guide to understanding his fiction, Said draws an important parallel between Conrad's view of his own life and the manner and form of his stories. The critic also argues that the author, who set his fiction in exotic locations like East Asia and Africa, projects political dimensions in his work that mirror a colonialist preoccupation with "civilizing" native peoples. Said then suggests that this dimension should be considered when reading all of Western literature. First published in 1966, Said's critique of the Western self's struggle with modernity signaled the beginnings of his groundbreaking work, Orientalism, and remains a cornerstone of postcolonial studies today.

Foreword, by Andrew N. Rubin
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Part One: Conrad's Letters
I. The Claims of Individuality
II. Character and the Knitting Machine, 1896-1912
III. The Claims of Fiction, 1896-1912
IV. Worlds at War, 1912-1918
V. The New Order, 1918