A Personal Record
by Joseph Conrad
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A Personal Record is writer Joseph Conrad's autobiography. The writing is lyrical and atmospheric and commonly believed to be somewhat embellished. It does, however, give great insight into his Polish childhood, his sailing adventures and his aspirations in the eyes of the British public. It also documents the process of writing Almayer's Folly. The preface to the work contains the much-quoted lines:"Those who read me know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few show more very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests notably, among others, on the idea of Fidelity."
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Readers who are curious about how Joseph Conrad went from sailor to novelist will appreciate this brief memoir. Stream of consciousness might be an apt description of its style, as one recollection leads to another, then another, and another. Conrad gives readers a glimpse of his childhood, his decision to go to sea (rare for a young man from land-locked Polish Ukraine), his choice of the English language, the writing of his first novel (Almayer’s Folly), and his friendship with Stephen Crane.
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Joseph Conrad is recognized as one of the 20th century's greatest English language novelists. He was born Jozef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in the Polish Ukraine. His father, a writer and translator, was from Polish nobility, but political activity against Russian oppression led to his exile. Conrad was orphaned at a young age show more and subsequently raised by his uncle. At 17 he went to sea, an experience that shaped the bleak view of human nature which he expressed in his fiction. In such works as Lord Jim (1900), Youth (1902), and Nostromo (1904), Conrad depicts individuals thrust by circumstances beyond their control into moral and emotional dilemmas. His novel Heart of Darkness (1902), perhaps his best known and most influential work, narrates a literal journey to the center of the African jungle. This novel inspired the acclaimed motion picture Apocalypse Now. After the publication of his first novel, Almayer's Folly (1895), Conrad gave up the sea. He produced thirteen novels, two volumes of memoirs, and twenty-eight short stories. He died on August 3, 1924, in England. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Gustav Kiepenheuer Bücherei (1979)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Personal Record
- Original title
- A Personal Record
- Alternate titles
- Some Reminiscences; A Personal Record: Some Reminiscences
- Original publication date
- 1912
- People/Characters
- Joseph Conrad
- Important places
- Poland; Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France
- First words
- Books may be written in all sorts of places.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The Red Ensign - the symbolic, protecting warm bit of bunting flung wide upon the seas, and destined for so many years to be the only roof over my head.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 204
- Popularity
- 159,677
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.87)
- Languages
- 9 — Catalan, English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 94
- ASINs
- 25
