Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski December 2 1857 August 3 1924 was a Polishborn English novelist Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties and then always with a marked Polish accent He wrote stories and novels predominantly with a nautical or seaboard setting that depict trials of the human spirit by the demands of duty and honour Conrad was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly nonEnglish tragic sensibility into English literature While some of his works have a strain of romanticism he is viewed as a precursor of modernist literature Writing in the heyday of the British Empire Conrad drew upon his experiences in the French and later the British Merchant Navy to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a worldwide empire while also plumbing the depths of the human soul His narrative style and antiheroic characters have influenced many authors Films have been adapted from or inspired by Conrads Victory Lord Jim The Secret Agent An Outcast of the Islands The Rover The Shadow Line The Duel Heart of Darkness Nostromo Almayers Folly