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protagonist Razumov (a name derived from but passive and unintentional. Häusermann
3
the Slavic word for “reason”) is an industrious maintains that for Conrad Geneva is a
and ambitious student in Sankt Peterburg – a harsher place than Siberia or the east coast of
self-made man aspiring a good public service. Borneo. Through the eyes of his protagonist
Yet, misled by Razumov’s industriousness and Razumov, Conrad describes the city as
frank talk, a fellow student with revolutionary “indifferent and hospitable in its cold, almost
views, who has just killed a brutal head of scornful toleration – a respectable town of
police (story based on historical facts), runs refuge to which all these sorrows and hopes
to him for help to escape. Instead, after a night [of the exiles] were nothing”. For Razumov
of torment, Razumov reports on his colleague Geneva is “the respectable and passionless
to the police, which arrests the idealistic youth abode of democratic liberty, the serious-
and executes him. Next, the Tsarist police minded town of dreary hotels, tendering the
recruits Razumov and sends him to Geneva to same indifferent hospitality to tourists of all
spy on the revolutionary emigree community, nations and to international conspirators of
which formed there at the beginning of the every shade”. Conrad contrasts the tranquil,
The house on who lived in an overcrowded boarding-house twentieth century. In the book, that community orderly, and content city - a “town, comely delay. He had nervous breakdowns and wrote The plate on the
avenue de la room with fresh mind and dignity. includes the mother and sister of the executed without grace, and hospitable without several short stories in between. When reading wall of the house
Roseraie 25, youth. Razumov’s horrendous dilemmas are sympathy” - with his flamboyant Slavic it, one can feel that it was not an easy piece. on avenue de
where Joseph Conrad came to Geneva for treatment at the exacerbated by his falling in love with the characters. Those characters are devoured by The torments of the characters somehow la Roseraie 25,
Conrad stayed in Champel hydro-therapeutic baths on four sister of the boy he has betrayed. When the passions, still cherishing the broad harmony transpire from the text. The novel was finally commemorating
1891, 1894, 1895 occasions: in 1891, 1894, 1895, and 1907. psychological pressure makes him confess his of spirit and belief in the brotherliness of all published in 1911. At the time, the Russian Joseph Conrad.
and 1907. Photo Every time he stayed at the hôtel-pension La traitorous act, the emigree community sends human beings, which we see in their hopes revolution of 1905 was already history and The inscription
by the author. Roseraie, which still stands today at Avenue its hitman (also a historical figure) to torture and sorrows. called for one reading of the novel. Six years in Latin reads,
de la Roseraie 25. He had already finished a and maim Razumov. Conrad starts his novel Almayer’s Folly: A later, the Bolsheviks’ October Revolution “Geneva hid up”.
sailing career and become a recognized writer, Story of an Eastern River with an exclamation called for a different reading. Today, after the Photo by the
but his health was ailing, affected by the stress Critics see in this novel signs of Conrad’s by Henri-Frédéric Amiel – the Genevan poet end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union, author.
he had endured, nervous breakdowns, and disdain for revolutionary activities. As in other and moral philosopher - qui de nous n’a eu sa after the Snowden revelations and similar
a tropical disease he had contracted in the works, Conrad argues here that both tyranny terre promise, son jour d’extase et sa fin en exil? stories originating in Geneva, one can read
Congo. the novel in a new light.
and violent revolution are incapable of solving Conrad himself, like his father and many of his
human problems. The novel is intrinsically family, was an exile. Whether in the western
Geneva and La Roseraie proved to be related to Russian history and experts discern world or under tropical skies, the exiles are
propitious for Conrad’s creativity. It was in in it the influence of Crime and Punishment. alien to the land that gives them refuge.
1907 at La Roseraie that he rapidly completed Yet for Conrad, in general, Dostoevsky was They always feel the difference, a sense of
his first novel with a spy plot - The Secret “too Russian” - something that shed a shadow unwantedness, if not enmity. The fate of many
Agent – a story set in London, involving on his opinion of other peoples’ concerns and characters in Conrad’s stories broadens into a
terrorism, spies, and Russian diplomats. Most dreams. symbol of the destiny of mankind. The sorrow
importantly, that stay in Geneva gave him of exile is deep inside the psyche of so many Bibliography:
the inspiration and the setting for his next Conrad’s works stand out among his people in this globalized world, dissolving Conrad, Joseph. Almayer’s Folly: A Story of an Eastern River,
novel – Under Western Eyes - one of his major contemporary British and other writers their hopes and pride of achievement, making Guttenberg Project 2006, online https://www.gutenberg.org/
works. Set in Sankt Peterburg and Geneva, a with their practically global coverage – from them suffer from that distress altogether. The files/720/720-h/720-h.htm
psychodrama about an ordinary person who Central Africa and the South Chinese Seas frontiers that have the strongest impact and Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness, Guttenberg Project 2006,
is recruited as a spy by a ruthless regime. The online https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/526/pg526.html
to the British Isles, Poland, and Geneva. In are most difficult to tackle are in the minds of Conrad, Joseph. Selected Short Stories, Ware, Wordsworth
this sense, Conrad can rightfully be called men, as the French geographer Jean Gottmann Classics 1997, xxvii-238 p.
“Geneva and La Roseraie proved to be a forerunner of globalization. Yet Conrad’s once put it. Describing the pain of living with Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes, Guttenberg Project 2006,
propitious for Conrad’s creativity. It was in global mobility associated him to another these mental frontiers is one of the important https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2480/2480-h/2480-h.htm
1907 at La Roseraie that he rapidly issue that he faced in his life and revealed in achievements of Conrad. Hochschild, Adam. “Stranger in Strange Lands: Joseph Conrad
his works – the pain of exile. Under Western
Conrad finalized Under Western Eyes with
and the Dawn of Globalization”, Foreign Affairs, March/April
completed his first novel with a spy plot Eyes, like other Conrad’s works, contemplates 2018, pp. 150-155.
- The Secret Agent – a story set in London, on the condition of exile in modern society. Häusermann, H. W. The Genevese Background, Häusermann, H. W. The Genevese Background, Studies of Shelley,
involving terrorism, spies, Geneva, the meeting-place of the hapless Studies of Shelley, Francis Danby, Maria Edge- Francis Danby, Maria Edgeworth, Ruskin, Meredith, and Joseph
refugees depicted by Conrad, has all the
and Russian diplomats. ” cruelty of a place of exile, a cruelty not wilful, worth, Ruskin, Meredith, and Joseph Conrad in Conrad in Geneva, London, Routledge 2016, xiii-224 p.
Geneva, London, Routledge 20 6, p.2 .

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