My Modernist (:

                                   Joseph Conrad :) 


Joseph Conrad wrote many stories and Novels. Here's some sad information.. : 

 In 1861 Joseph’s nationalist father, who was an outspoken supporter of the serfs and critic of Poland’s oppressors, was arrested along with his wife for being involved with the Polish National Committee’s anti-Russian activities. They and four-year old Joseph were exiled to the province of Vologda in Northern Russia. The living conditions and harsh climate took their toll on Joseph’s parents: they both contracted tuberculosis, Evelina dying of it in 1865, Apollo in 1869. He was celebrated at his death by the Poles in patriotic honour.
Shaken from their deaths and also suffering from various health problems that would plague him for the rest of his life, at the age of twelve Joseph became the ward of his maternal uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski (d.1894), a landowner who lived in Cracow, Poland. He would be a great support to Joseph morally and financially for many years to come.

He was then sixty-two years old and had been for a quarter of a century the wisest, the firmest, the most indulgent of guardians, extending over me a paternal care and affection, a moral support which I seemed to feel always near me in the most distant parts of the earth.” (A Personal Record, Ch. 2)

As well as speaking Polish, Joseph had been taught French by his governess Mlle. Durand and received some schooling from his father. Now his uncle hired a student from Cracow University to continue his education, tutoring him in Latin, Greek, geography, and mathematics although Joseph disliked the formality of lessons. He was by nature full of nervous energy and physically active. His frustrated tutor soon learned that from an early age he yearned to travel on the seas and go to the ‘dark continent’ of Africa. In 1874 with his uncle’s blessing and as a way of avoiding conscription by the Russians, Conrad travelled to the bustling port town of Marseilles in southern France. As an important hub of the French Merchant Marine, Conrad was soon able to find employment with several French vessels over the next four years. It was the beginning of his fifteen year career as seaman during which he would meet so many of the men who would figure largely in his works.
Life at sea was challenging but full of thrills and adventure and suited Conrad well who at times had a tempestuous personality. He visited many of the major ports of the world and worked on every kind of vessel possible including the ‘Sainte Antoine’, ‘Duke of Sutherland’ ‘Palestine’, ‘Otago’ and ‘Tremolino’. He was involved with gunrunning and smuggling for a time, and in the off hours incurred a number of gambling debts. When he could not repay them he attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He survived and his uncle paid off his debts but he lost his position with the French merchants so joined the English ship ‘Mavis’ in 1878. Two years later he passed his third mate’s exam and in 1886 earned his Master’s certificate in the British Merchant Service and became a British Citizen. It was at this time that he changed his name to Joseph Conrad. His next few years of service took him to various ports of call including the Malay Archipelago, the Gulf of Siam and the Belgian Congo. Under the employ of the Societe Anonyme pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo in 1890 Conrad at last plunged into the ‘dark continent’ and wrote his ‘Congo Diary’ that would later become The Heart of Darkness.


     Im Really hoping we read some of his stories!!! :)