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Geneva of his short stories and novels were inspired
by his personal experiences of those years. For
and Joseph instance, The Heart of Darkness, the story on
which Francis Ford Coppola based his film
Conrad as Apocalypse Now, builds on the experience
Conrad gained when employed by the Belgian
father of the company managing travel on the Congo
River, while the short story Youth: A narrative
modern spy was inspired by his trip as a second mate on a
merchant ship to “the Orient”.
novel: A feature distinguishing Conrad among

an impression such authors in his time as Rudyard Kipling,
who idealized Western intervention as a
civilizational effort, was Conrad’s staunch
criticism of colonialism. This reflects Conrad’s
hereditary aversion to oppression and his
personal observations of what was happening
in colonized lands. No one who reads The
Heart of Darkness, published in 1899, can
take the civilizational claim of colonialism
for granted any more. “To tear treasure out of
the bowels of the land was their desire, with imagination of it! To me she was not an old Joseph Conrad
By Mario Apostolov no more moral purpose at the back of it than rattle-trap carting about the world a lot of coal on the cover
there is in burglars breaking into a safe”, says
for a freight – to me she was the endeavour, of the Tome
1
Marlow - Conrad’s character and alter ego. the test, the trial of life”, Conrad wrote. Magazine,
2
Yet the most impressive aspect of Conrad’s Enthusiasm helps a young person overcome 7 April 1923,
Joseph Conrad Among the personalities who lived and Polish nationalist activist in the struggle for works is their deep insight into the psychology the vagaries of life, expecting the natural by TIME
in 1916 by Alvin created major pieces of art in Geneva Joseph liberation. It was due to this activism that in of the human being. As if his stories combine course of things to lift him up. In the story, Magazine
Langdon Coburn Conrad stands out as father of the modern spy 1862, when Conrad was just four, the Tsarist the concrete personal experience of the writer the youth’s mindset contrasts the scepticism,
- NYPL Digital novel. Overall, he is one of very few writers, regime sent the family to Vologda, 500 km with an essay on a fundamental feature of bordering cynicism, of the old captain and
Gallery who became classics in the literature of a north of Moscow, known for its harsh climate. the human psyche. In the Heart of Darkness his first mate, for whom everything about
language that was originally not their own. In 1865, after the return from exile, Conrad’s Conrad explores an old approach in literature: the trip to the Orient, which exults the young
Critics say that despite his troubled life and mother died of tuberculosis. In 1869 his father sailing along a river is associated with a travel boy, is part of an uninspiring routine at the
fragmented education, Conrad exemplified moved to Krakow, in Austrian-held Poland, through one’s consciousness. Youth is also end of their lifetime journey. In my life, I
the highest standards of the genres he was but soon after that he died, leaving Conrad an example of Conrad’s psychologism. It often recollected this story. I apprehended,
writing in. As for Geneva, it relates to a major orphaned at the age of eleven. describes the first trip of a young enthusiastic for example, as the story of Youth the devoted
transition in Conrad’s artistic investigation, sailor as a second mate, longing for his first efforts of some friends, medical students,
at an advanced stage of his writing career. If Apollo influenced Conrad’s interest in encounter with the Orient. He is ready to
we know him primarily for his short stories literature and writing. Yet the young boy accept the numerous failings of the old ship
and novels with a nautical setting, reflecting soon broke with his father’s other interests: on which he is affected (“all rust, dust, grime 2 Conrad, Joseph. “Youth: A narrative”, Selected
Short Stories, Ware, Wordsworth Classics 997,
the rich impressions of his seafarer experience fervent nationalism and somewhat leftist – soot aloft, dirt on deck”) – a barque carrying p.75.
around the world, the works that saw the light revolutionary activism. Conrad left his native coal from England to Bangkok, which finally
of day in Geneva echoed his observations on lands at the age of 16 to realize his dream of catches fire, burns down and sinks. In the
life and psychology in the world of espionage. sailing abound the world. His first stop was background, the youth’s mind apprehends all “For instance, The Heart of Darkness, the
Joseph Conrad was born as Józef Teodor Marseille, where he enlisted as a crewman these troubles as temporary circumstances story on which Francis Ford Coppola based
Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, in Berdychiv, on a ship. Curiously, some of his first literary on the way to greater accomplishments. “O
then in the Russian Empire and now attempts were in French. Circumstances later youth! The strength of it, the faith of it, the his film Apocalypse Now, builds on the ex-
in Ukraine, into a family of rich Polish took him to Britain. In 1888, he reached the perience Conrad gained when employed by
landowners. His father, Apollo Korzeniowski, top of his seafarer’s career as captain of a Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness, Gut- the Belgian company managing travel on
was a writer, translator and, above all, a barque. When he switched to writing, most tenberg Project 2006, online https://www.guten-
berg.org/cache/epub/526/pg526.html the Congo River...”

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