Human Beings and Writings Essay

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Joseph Conrad and His Influence on British Literary History

Joseph Conrad was born in the Polish-dominated side of Ukraine in the year 1857, and was originally known as Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski. He was at sea for twenty years, after which he became an author. He wrote in English, which was the language he learnt third. What he went through while in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, along with all the reading and the knowledge he had about Europe were the bases for his writing. He was listed as the top British author of the 20th Century (Larabee).

He was well-known as a sophisticated and subtle observer of the physical world and the behavior of humans. Conrad was also a renowned literary artist. He had many writings including memoirs, novels and short stories, which are still widely read and studied today. For example, his 1899 story, Heart of Darkness, is used for study in secondary schools and even beyond. It has also been used in radio, theater, television and film. The story has also inspired many authors, who have taken up the language and motifs he used. Conrad is known for much more than Heart of Darkness. His other famous novels include The Secret Agent (1907), Lord Jim (1900) and Nostromo (1904). Other than the novels, he also had drama, essays and many letters which indicated the stories of his life, literary associations as well as writing styles. His writings were well analyzed while he was alive, though he was eluded by fame and riches, till 1913, when Chance was published (Larabee).

Joseph Conrad and British Literary History

Encyclopedia Britannica says that Joseph Conrad's work was loved since it had intense prose as well as descriptions of how dangerous it was to live at sea and to be in foreign places. However, the fact that he was earlier known as great in narration of the adventures he had at sea hid how surprised he was about how man had no concern for nature, the malice in humans as well as the inner struggles he had between bad and good. Conrad opined that the sea represented loneliness.

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Joseph Conrad's writings showed his sophisticated skill as well as fascinating knowledge. This is why Conrad was among the best authors of English novels.

In his expedition, Conrad visited Congo; which was a great inspiration for him while he wrote Heart of Darkness. The story indicates the things he went through in Congo. This story is his greatest, most mysterious and best known. He chose the title to represent the center of Africa, which he described as a dark continent. The title also represents the center of wickedness; all that is malicious, corrupt and nihilistic; probably even the center of human beings. Heart of Darkness centers on Conrad's vision and work, and clearly shows that he had quite a traumatic experience in Congo. He went through metaphysical, spiritual and mental suffering while on his visit. Conrad also got an illness which ate him up throughout his lifetime. He suffered from gout, and an on and off fever (Encyclopedia Britannica).

In 1894, during spring, Conrad sent a literary piece known as Almayer's Folly, which was received by Fischer Unwin, a publisher based in London. It was published the next year in April. The author of Almayer's Folly influenced Conrad to change his name, since Conrad realized that the British had a hard time pronouncing his original name, Korzeniowski. After, Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands was written in 1896. The story is repetitive of the theme about a blindly and unwise shallow character, who pays dearly for his shortcomings while at a tropical zone away from the rest of his European companions (Encyclopedia Britannica).

The two stories led to Conrad's goal and talents being misjudged, something he had to live with throughout his lifetime. In the archipelago of Malay, they labeled him as an author of foreign stories, which was seen in a number of his writings about life at sea, such as Typhoon (1902), The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897), Youth (1902) and Lord Jim (1900). However, he had his own words on the "Narcissus," which….....

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