Joseph Conrad

Up-to-date and extensive revision of Najder's much-acclaimed scholarly biography of Conrad, employing newly accessible sources.Joseph Conrad is not only one of the world's great writers of English -- and world -- literature, but was a writer who lived a particularly full and interesting life. For the biographer this is a double-edged sword, however: thereare many periods for which documentation is uncommonly difficult. Zdzislaw Najder's meticulously documented biography first appeared in English in 1983, garnering high praise as the best, most complete biography of Conrad. Najder's command of English, French, Polish, and Russian allowed him access to a greater variety of sources than any other biographer, and his Polish background and his own experience as an exile have afforded him a unique affinity forConrad and his milieu. All this has come into play once again in the present, extensively revised edition: much of its extensive new material was unearthed in newly-opened former east-bloc archives. There is new material on Conrad's father's genealogy and his role in Polish politics; Conrad's service in the French and British merchant marines; his early English reading and correspondence; his experiences in the Congo; the circumstances of writing his memoirs, and much more. In addition, several aspects of Conrad's life and works are more thoroughly analyzed: his problems with the English language; his borrowings from French writers; his attitude toward socialism, his reaction to the reception of his books. Zdzislaw Najder teaches at the European Academy, Cracow.

The most scholarly, most comprehensive, as well as the most faithfully Conradian account of the writer's life . Especially with the publication of its new edition . unlikely to be surpassed for a long time to come., A great achievement in revealing to us with honesty and compassion a writer of immense moral stature and untiring devotion to his art., The revisions ... further strengthen what was already the indispensable biography. They are extensive and substantial, incorporating not only Najder's own discoveries but those by such distinguished scholars as Andrew Busza, J. H. Stape, the late Sylvère Monod, and the late Hans van Marle. --Laurence Davies, University of Glasgow, General Editor of Conrad's Collected Letters, A heroic achievement., A portrait of a remarkable human in his native milieu and the story of how he adapted to a very different environment. Najder's Conrad is a man of deep emotions under a mask of circumspection. [Builds] up a detailed portrait of Conrad using every scrap of available information.