Dimensions
161 x 240 x 39mm
When he died in 1924, Virginia Woolf wrote of Joseph Conrad, 'Suddenly, our guest has left us... There was always an air of mystery around him.' Never quite an Englishman, Conrad is depicted in this authoritative new biography as a man who consistently reinvented himself, transforming fiction into life and, in turn, life into litererature.
Having endured a difficult childhood in the politically repressive Austro-Hungarian empire Conrad took to the seas, first working as a sailor in Marseilles, before joining the British merchant navy and travelling to the Far East and the Congo. Then in 1894, Conrad began his great transformation; after some twenty tears at seaprecarious cash-strapped existence as an Edwardian novelist and anxious family man and father.
Such phrases as the 'heart of darkness" and 'The horror! The horror!' have entered the language, often cited without an awareness of their original contexts - few writers of such determinedly literary, 'difficult' fiction have enjoyed so wide an impact. THE SEVERAL LIVES OF JOSEPH CONRAD places into context Conrad's life and work as never before possible, drawing on letters and documents previously unseen. John Stape's evocative portait is complete with period detail and packed with fresh insights into the life of a wilfully enigmatic man who became one of the greatest writers of his, and our, time.
