Joseph Conrad: A Biography

by Jeffrey Meyers

The author probes the complex life and work of Joseph Conrad, a Polish exile in England, his friendships with Ford, Crane, James, and Galsworthy, his varied works, and his affair with American journalist Jane Anderson

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir

428 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Jeffrey Meyers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has recently been given an Award in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thirty of his books have been translated into fourteen languages and seven alphabets, and published on six continents. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Lukrezia Cosimo]

This was a long haul because I kept on having to stop to read one or other of the novels to avoid having the plots spoilt. His life at sea is fascinating, but his later life is less interesting. Nonetheless, it is a good biography. How puzzling that this native Pole, who had strongly accented English to the end, became one of the great literary figures of the English language!

[Lucy]

Ultimately, a disappointing read - if the author had stuck to the actual facts about Conrad's life, ditched the recapitulation of the plots of the novels and left off the uninteresting stuff about Jane Anderson at the end, then this could have been a taut, fascinating biography of a remarkable man. Still, it's done the job of sending me back to the novels.

[Norman Simmons]

His excellent research into Conrad's life and relationships plus his smooth style of writing captured me as Meyers followed the adventures and writing career of this man of letters, who wrote his novels not in his native Polish, nor in his second language, French, but in English.