Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. Conrad is considered an early modernist, though his works still contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced numerous authors, including T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Graham Greene, and Salman Rushdie. Many films have been adapted from, or inspired by, his works. Conrad was born in Berdychiv, in what is now Ukraine, to Apollo Korzeniowski, a writer and translator of French literature, and his wife Ewa Bobrowska. He was of Polish, Ukrainian, and French descent. He spent his childhood in Kraków, Poland, where he was educated in Russian schools. In 1874, he left Poland and, at the age of 17, joined the French merchant marine. Conrad served in the British merchant navy from 1878 to 1894, and during this time he visited many parts of the world, including the Congo, the Malay Archipelago, and the West Indies. His experiences in these places provided the material for some of his most famous works, including Heart of Darkness (1899) and Lord Jim (1900). In 1895, Conrad settled in England, where he wrote his most famous works, including Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), and Under Western Eyes (1911). He was naturalized as a British subject in 1886 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1924. He died in 1924 in Bishopsbourne, Kent, England.
53 works on Textopian