Joseph Conrad Books

After the masterpieces had all been written Conrad began writing a purer kind of adventure story. These late books are interesting and though not masterpieces themselves there is something in each one that makes them well worth your while. The young man in Arrow of Gold has fallen under the allure of old Europe in the form of the lovely Spaniard Dona Rita (Conrads most complete and most attractive portrait of a woman) and finds himself involved in her schemes to smuggle guns to her countrymen from Marseilles. High adventure ensues, including a breathtaking boat chase, but every cause and every ideal is corruptible and Conrad with this book contrasts the heady ideals of youth with worldly experience and wisdom. In these last books(Rescue, Arrow of Gold, Rover) it feels as though Conrad felt he had already tackled his great themes so there is a calm in the writing of them that is very pleasing and one imagines he is enjoying the writing of them in his retired captains easy chair as much as we enjoy the reading of them. The arrow is a gold pin, a rich symbol, the fate of which must be left unknown to potential readers. The historical setting of 1870's Marseilles is one Conrad knew well as that is the port from which he set off to sea for the first time and the gun running episode as well as the boat(especially the boat)Conrad spoke of with great fondness in his memoirs.

The Arrow of Gold is a must for Conrad fans, as it is based on one of the most interesting and obscure periods of the Polish-English writer's life. Action happens in the 1870's in Marseilles, France, where a young and naif sailor, back from West Indies, is engaged by a couple of conspirators to smuggle guns and ammunition for the Carlist army, with the idea of putting King Carlos back in the throne of Spain. All this is almost exactly what happened to Conrad, all which is partially narrated in the "Tremolino" chapter of his beatiful book The Mirror of the Sea, as well as in the souvenir book entitled Some Reminiscences. The Arrow of Gold is a book of Conrad's maturity. It was not well received in his time and Conrad himself was not fully happy with it. But it is a deeply moving and funny novel, full of adventures, fascinating ladies, charming crooks, bizarre characters and sharp descritions of places and milieu. All this in a neat prose, now free from the philosophical statements or stylistic refinements that at times burden some of the works of the great Master. In summary, a rather forgotten book by the author of Lord Jim, Nostromo and so many masterpieces, which deserves to be "discovered" by old and new Conrad devotees.

A different approach in the search of pleasure. The incensant search for meaning to achieve individuality. In short, a fantastic, though, antagonistic crossbreed amongst them. Existence and death to numb loneliness at its best... Highly recomended!

A different approach in the search of pleasure. The incensant search for meaning to achieve individuality. In short, a fantastic, though, antagonistic crossbreed amongst them. Existence and death to numb loneliness at its best... Highly recomended!

The quality of this recording leaves something to be desired. It sounds like it was done in the 1950's and the speaker's voice is high-pitched, twangy and practically inaudible at times. Aside from this, Conrad's prose is beautiful and incredibly moving and his descriptions of the depths of the African jumgle are incomparable.

I read this book for a graduate Humanities course. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, written in 1899 is a seminal work about the ills of colonialism, as well as a postmodern look at the subject of mankind. Conrad's book had a crucial influence on five important works of the twentieth century: J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius, was based on Conrad's book. Another interesting fact is that this work was read by Orson Welle's Mercury Theater Players on the radio and was to be his first movie. After doing some work on it he abandoned the project to do Citizen Kane! I would have loved to of seen what Welles could have done with this story. Conrad's story is so riveting in part, because he himself served as a riverboat captain. High school teachers and college professors who have discussed this book in thousands of classrooms over the years tend to do so in terms of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche; of classical myth, Victorian innocence, and original sin; of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.

Just a taste of the plot reels you in! Marlow, the narrator of Heart of Darkness and Conrad's alter ego, is hired by an ivory-trading company to sail a steamboat up an unnamed river whose shape on the map resembles "an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (8). His destination is a post where the company's brilliant, ambitious star agent, Mr. Kurtz, is stationed. Kurtz has collected legendary quantities of ivory, but, Marlow learns along the way, is also rumored to have sunk into unspecified savagery. Marlow's steamer survives an attack by blacks and picks up a load of ivory and the ill Kurtz; Kurtz, talking of his grandiose plans, dies on board as they travel, downstream.

Sketched with only a few bold strokes, Kurtz's image has nonetheless remained in the memories of millions of readers: the lone white agent far up the great river, with his dreams of grandeur,his great store of precious ivory, and his fiefdom carved out of the African jungle. Perhaps more than anything, we remember Marlow, on the steamboat, looking through binoculars at what he thinks are ornamental knobs atop the fence posts in front of Kurtz's house and then finding that each is "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth" (57).

I especially became interested in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land is one of three books on the nightstand. The other two are Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, and J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla are trying to tell their audience need to read these three books as well as Conrad's Heart of Darkness!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

There is both a literal and a metaphorical heart of darkness here as man journeys from boring old England to the unknown Belgian Congo. That unknown is the physical heart of darkness.

The other heart is the psychology of the man himself, and the man that he meets there.

I read this book for a graduate Humanities course. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, written in 1899 is a seminal work about the ills of colonialism, as well as a postmodern look at the subject of mankind. Conrad's book had a crucial influence on five important works of the twentieth century: J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius, was based on Conrad's book. Another interesting fact is that this work was read by Orson Welle's Mercury Theater Players on the radio and was to be his first movie. After doing some work on it he abandoned the project to do Citizen Kane! I would have loved to of seen what Welles could have done with this story. Conrad's story is so riveting in part, because he himself served as a riverboat captain. High school teachers and college professors who have discussed this book in thousands of classrooms over the years tend to do so in terms of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche; of classical myth, Victorian innocence, and original sin; of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.

Just a taste of the plot reels you in! Marlow, the narrator of Heart of Darkness and Conrad's alter ego, is hired by an ivory-trading company to sail a steamboat up an unnamed river whose shape on the map resembles "an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (8). His destination is a post where the company's brilliant, ambitious star agent, Mr. Kurtz, is stationed. Kurtz has collected legendary quantities of ivory, but, Marlow learns along the way, is also rumored to have sunk into unspecified savagery. Marlow's steamer survives an attack by blacks and picks up a load of ivory and the ill Kurtz; Kurtz, talking of his grandiose plans, dies on board as they travel, downstream.

Sketched with only a few bold strokes, Kurtz's image has nonetheless remained in the memories of millions of readers: the lone white agent far up the great river, with his dreams of grandeur,his great store of precious ivory, and his fiefdom carved out of the African jungle. Perhaps more than anything, we remember Marlow, on the steamboat, looking through binoculars at what he thinks are ornamental knobs atop the fence posts in front of Kurtz's house and then finding that each is "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth" (57).

I especially became interested in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land is one of three books on the nightstand. The other two are Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, and J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla are trying to tell their audience need to read these three books as well as Conrad's Heart of Darkness!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

I have not heard this recording, and cannot comment on the version of Heart of Darkness... but The Investigator is an absolute classic not to miss, whatever the recording quality: it satirizes the McCarthy/HUAC hearings brilliantly, with funny and memorable dialog. Not to be missed by fans of classic radio, lovers of good satire, or anyone interested in the period of the hearings.

I am glad finally there is a audio play available for this time-honored sea story by Joseph Conrad. Although the narrative has been omitted in this production, the essence and the mood have well kept and best of all, the sound quality is still in top form even though it was produced in the fifties. This is really a vintage radio play at its best, I am sure it will delight fans of the golden age of radio.

There's a lot of detail here about his life, too much, perhaps, but certainly among the great 20th century writers conrad led one of the more interesting lives. I was more interested in a study of his works, what inspired him to write stories like lord jim and the secret agent (incidentally victory, one of conrad's best, overlooked works does get this sort of detailed inspection - but it is the exception) but for the most part meyers speeds through these parts. But if you have an interest in conrad, have read a number of his stories and would like to know more, then I certainly recommend this biography.

I bought this book after reading Heart of Darkness, Victory, and the Secret Sharer. I wanted to know more about the man who wrote such haunting fiction. The beginning of this book gives an excellent and riveting account of Conrad's parents and their political exile. After Conrad's mother dies he remains with his father in severe and isolated conditions. A detailed account of Conrad's early life helped me to understand how he wrote what he did. Quite fascinating. Also, he did visit the Congo and had experiences there that give great insight into Heart of Darkness. Including marking people he met that are models for characters in the story. Plus he was a seaman, so we learn how he could write realistically on this subject. And we learn about Conrad's psyche, his strengths and weaknesses. I loved learning about his life, but this bio also goes into some detail about all of Conrad's novels. If you haven't read them you may become lost. If you have read all his works this bio will definitely increase your appreciation and add to your understanding of this great writer.

I wish I had a better review for this book, but I really can't say I enjoyed it. It's clear that Conrad put a lot of work into writing the book. At least, he put a lot of work into the writing of the book. Every single sentence of this book is a work of art. Conrad writes each sentence as if his life depended on it. Pure, unabashed, overwrought tedium.

The story is about political change in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana and its crown jewel Sulaco. It's also about the rich silver mine on the island. And it's about the foreigners who come to take so much from the country for their own gain. It never really brings these themes together coherently.

The first half of the book (up to the second section, 6th chapter) sets up the scene. Characters are introduced and thrown away, locations are presented and detailed from the tips of the mountains to the smoldering candles of the inns. This part of the book reads very slowly. It's like slogging through mud in a dense fog. The reader is tempted to skim this section, but I found myself more confused if I didn't read a sentence carefully than if I spent a minute on each one.

The second half of the book, starting at the second section, 6th chapter, is where the book starts moving. The political revolution occuring in Costaguana threatens the safety and tranquility of Sulaco, so a plan is hatched to resist the marching armies of Montero and to make Sulaco an independent country. This story is interesting compared to the rest of the book, but it is by no means a captivating story.

For all the work that the book requires of the reader, the payoff is slight. Compare the difficult poetry of Nostromo to All the King's Men. Nostromo suffers greatly because of its lack of cohesion and minimal plot. It relies on the strength of the prose to carry the book, but the text is uninviting and difficult. All the King's Men, on the other hand, is wordy and terribly over-written, but the story is never subordinated to the prose.

I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It may be worth it if you are dying to read Joseph Conrad, but otherwise the book is hopelessly long and unfulfilling. The writing gets 2 stars and the story gets 1, so 3 stars total, but these are a hesitant 3 stars.

Often regarded as Conrad's masterwork, Nostromo is also Conrad's darkest novel, filled with betrayals at all levels and offering little hope for man's redemption. A novel of huge scope and political intrigue, it is also a novel in which no character actually wins. All must accept the ironies which fate has dealt them. Setting the novel in the imaginary South American country of Costaguana, the story centers around a silver mine in the mountains outside of the capital, Sulaco, vividly depicting its allure and the price each character pays for its success.

When Charles Gould, returns from England to claim and reopen the rich silver mine he has inherited from his father, he has good intentions-- to provide jobs for the peasants and contribute to the economy of the town at the same time that he also profits. Soon, however, he becomes obsessed with wealth and power, and as the political climate gets hotter, he must pay off government officials, bandits, the church, and various armed revolutionaries to be able to work. Each of these groups is vividly depicted as working for its own ends and not for the good of the people, and with their goals focused on the real world, these characters have no self-awareness, nor do they develop it during the novel.

In contrast to these "unrealized" humans, Conrad presents several characters who develop some self-awareness through their experiences. Nostromo, a local legend, is a man of principle who has always kept his word. Martin Decoud, a newspaper man, is a nihilist who has editorialized against the revolution, though he has yet to test himself. Dr. Monygham, captured during a past revolution, broke under torture, and is now seeking absolution by fighting against this revolution. And the good and long-suffering wife of Charles Gould, Dona Emilia, spends her time helping others.

When Nostromo agrees to protect a load of silver from revolutionaries by taking it out to sea, Conrad provides a bleak commentary on idealism and human nature. The conclusion, which includes a love story that feels tacked on, reveals Conrad's darkest self and offers little hope of change and even less hope for man's redemption. Rich in atmosphere, vibrant in description, filled with characters representing all walks of life and philosophy, and set in a country where revolution is a way of life, the novel is full of dark portents and bleak political outcomes. Mary Whipple

When you hear Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, or The Secret Agent, does "Joseph Conrad" come to mind? Reading about Conrad's jinxed life turned those books more intimate and all the more tragic.

John Stape opens his Conrad biography with notes and appendices as you into Conrad's life. Without these pieces, any Conrad non-professional would most likely be lost, as Conrad's world was so vastly different from anything imaginable.

Born to Polish parents, he was exiled to northern Russia before he could read. His father, a Polish Revolutionary, was forced to flee after defying the Tzar. His mother had died in Siberia when he was 7; then at 11 he became an official orphan. At 16 he moved to France and then moved onto England, where he became a sailor with the Merchant Marines. This job fuelled his writing power, though he led such a brilliant life in solitude.

Conrad quickly married working-class, Jessie. As with the sailing voyages, his fragile marriage also gave birth to plots and the passion put into his earlier short stories. Fears that his wife may leave him should he become delusional was one main plot, and in another a wife killed her husband due to his sexual advances-which he wrote on his honeymoon.

Conrad who seemed to attract bad luck. As he was finishing a lengthy novel, a tipped oil lamp destroyed the manuscript, as another was being shipped on the Titanic. Enough said. Misfortune and scarring events gave him material to write fictional portrayals of his own experiences. On a voyage through the Belgian Congo, he produced Heart of Darkness, even though his health and morale were shattered by the experience.

Stape writes an eloquent portrait of Conrad's life. Overall, the book was so intensely in tune with what one could imagine Conrad's experiences to be, that I had to balance out the depressing read with something lighthearted.

Clearly Stape is a Conrad expert. Despite the absence of good fortune during Conrad's life, the literary community was blessed with a writer no less than a genius.

Armchair Interviews says: If you love biographies that paint vivid and realistic pictures of a famous writer, this is for you.

Joseph Conrad was such an exceptional man. Starting life in very challenging circumstances, losing both mother and father early, he nevertheless found support and adventures more than enough to fill any man's life.

And yet he still had room to change; to stop being a mariner and travel the world, to settle in a new and different country, to write in a language that was not his first - both short stories and novels.

Conrad, it seems, carried injury that rarely left him. And yet he struggled on, often with the driving need for money. Fortunately for us, he did have supportive mentors. Unfortunately for him, not only was it money that drove him - it was also the need to have something to publish that the publishers demanded. And this did compromise his novels - not only in the critics' eyes, but in the author's as well. He just had to drive the thing to completion. When I read 'The Secret Agent' I sensed that the writing was better in the second half of the novel (and indicated so in my Amazon.com review). It didn't surprise when I read in Mr Stape's biography that Joseph Conrad was so dissatisfied with the novel (it was originally published as a serial) that he rewrote the second half of it.

Despite these shortcomings there are few writers who can be so luminous in their writing, and who can hold many trains of narrative in the one stream of story telling.

I liked this biography and yet it didn't rise to the standard of Swafford's biography of Brahms for me. It seemed to be in a bit of a rush, even a summary - could it be that Mr Stape's publisher was ....

recommended other reading:
'Under Western Eyes' - Joseph Conrad
'Heart of Darkness' - Joseph Conrad
'Chance' - Joseph Conrad
'Johannes Brahms: a biography' - Jan Swafford

In these tales, people are put under heavy mental stress by fatal accidents, hostile environments or insoluble doubts. Their reactions become uncontrollable.
The short stories give a good picture of Conrad's themes, story building with surprising outcomes and view on mankind: `Morality is not a method of happiness'.

In `Karain: a Memory', a Malay war-chief makes an odyssey trying to kill a woman who left her native village with a white man. He becomes haunted by the spirit of his dead brother.
In `The Lagoon', the adduction of a woman turns into a fatal accident. `There is no light and no peace in the world; but there is death - death for many. I left him in the midst of the enemies; but I am going back.'
In `An outpost of Progress', two lonely `progressive' colonialists become haunted by their hostile environment; `a suggestion of things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive, whose discomposing intrusion tries the civilized nerves.'
In `The Return', a marriage turns sour on the impossible `certitude of love and faith'.
In `The Idiots', a less successful offspring puts a marriage under extreme pressure.

These sometimes furiously written stories with their high evocative power of landscapes, feelings and conflicts should not be missed.

his anthology of 216 pages provides an excellent introduction for new readers to Polish-born Joseph Conrad, who deftly paints on an English canvass. Having selected five of his tales the editors present readers with settings in both the exotic tropics of Malaysia and Africa, as well as the chilly social milieus of socialite London and pastoral France. Perhaps the editors chose the word UNREST for their title, because all the protagonists experience psychological malaise from a diversity of causes.

KARAIN. This Malay chieftain feels cursed by his past, so he desperately seekst a new English charm to ward off his fatal stalker.

THE IDIOTS. A simple French peasant couple are cursed by bearing children who are severely mentally retarded.

OUTPOST OF PROGRESS. The title is sheer irony, since a useless African trading station is run by two ineffectual English agents. The men are pursued by their failed pasts, general laziness, incompetence, extreme heat and company indifference.

THE RETURN. A young socialite husband returns home to discover a note from his wife, explaining that she has left him for another man. In this most psychological of the tales, the wronged husband undergoes a series of intense emotions and decisions, ultimately defying the very Society he represents.

THE LAGOON. A native is pre-grieving the death of his beloved wife, unburdening his soul before his only white friend. Although this represents Conrad's first published short story, curiously it concludes this particular anthology. Prepare to explore the murky waters of the human heart and soul.

filled with insight and photos: the contents include Mr.Galsworthy's secret loyalties,the kingdom of Conrad,a great critical on joseph c. lincoln's novels of cape cod.this is a book that will walk you thru the best of 1923 and it is the best entertainment on books you are likely to find anywhere. A rare and wonderful look into the past,with interest and wit...