Joseph Conrad

Author profile

born

December 03, 1857 in Berdichev (formerly Poland), Ukraine

died

August 03, 1924

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.

Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard British ships, learning English from his shipmates. He was made a Master Mariner, and served more than sixteen years before an event inspired him to try his hand at writing.

He was hired to take a steamship into Africa, and according to Conrad, the experience of seeing firsthand the horrors of colonial rule left him a changed man. His introspective nee...more

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Books by Joseph Conrad

Average rating: 3.41 · 128,453 ratings · 5,967 reviews · 255 distinct works

	Heart of Darkness 3.33 avg rating — 88,566 ratings — published 1899 — 163 editions	My rating:
	Heart of Darkness/The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad, Joyce Carol Oates (Introduction) 3.42 avg rating — 8,364 ratings — published 1902 — 46 editions	My rating:
	Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction by Joseph Conrad, A. Michael Matin (Introduction) 3.55 avg rating — 7,751 ratings — published 1899 — 32 editions	My rating:
	Lord Jim 3.48 avg rating — 6,795 ratings — published 1899 — 145 editions	My rating:
	The Secret Agent 3.54 avg rating — 4,010 ratings — published 1907 — 188 editions	My rating:
	Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, Dover Thrift Editions 3.73 avg rating — 2,683 ratings — published 1904 — 55 editions	My rating:
	Victory by Joseph Conrad, Robert Hampson (Editor) 3.79 avg rating — 763 ratings — published 1915 — 88 editions	My rating:
	The Secret Sharer 3.52 avg rating — 680 ratings — published 1910 — 44 editions	My rating:
	Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad, Dover Thrift Editions 3.74 avg rating — 680 ratings — published 1910 — 71 editions	My rating:
	The Secret Sharer and other stories 3.67 avg rating — 560 ratings — published 1909 — 13 editions	My rating:

More books by Joseph Conrad…

Quotes by Joseph Conrad

“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.”
― Joseph Conrad

tags: women

6,337 people liked it

“We live as we dream--alone....”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

tags: dream , loneliness

457 people liked it

“My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.”
― Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

tags: inspirational , power-of-words , writing

450 people liked it

See all Joseph Conrad's quotes »

Polls

What frequently challenged or banned book for adults should we read in August and September?

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

25 votes, 20.2%

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

18 votes, 14.5%

Carrie by Stephen King

16 votes, 12.9%

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

13 votes, 10.5%

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

12 votes, 9.7%

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell

11 votes, 8.9%

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

8 votes, 6.5%

Native Son by Richard Wright

8 votes, 6.5%

Final Exit (Third Edition): The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphry

7 votes, 5.6%

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

6 votes, 4.8%

124 total votes

15 comments

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