Items related to The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad
Synopsis
Published to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, The Several Lives of Joseph Conradis a brilliant and highly readable biography of a literary figure of world-wide reputation.
Conrad’s impact has been so profound and far-reaching that, eighty years after his death, he remains an essential cultural reference point. Such phrases as “heart of darkness” and “The horror! The horror!” have entered the language, often cited without an awareness of their original contexts. His popular legacy extends to Latin American fiction, to the spy novel, to the terrorist and anarchist character, and to film. The writers he has influenced range from T. S. Eliot to William Faulkner to V. S. Naipaul and John Le Carré. For a writer of “difficult” fiction he has enjoyed a remarkably wide impact, yet as Marlow proclaims in Lord Jim of the figure whose story he tells,“he was one of us,” and so Conrad remains in fascinating ways.
Stape’s biography – an intimate portrait, including previously unpublished photographs – offers a Conrad for our times, a man with a deep sense of otherness, of multiple cultural identities and, writing in his third language, a working writer, whose novels and stories are a cornerstone of literary modernism and, indeed, of modernity itself.
From the Hardcover edition.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
"John Stape has brought Joseph Conrad so much to life--a working writer, a man subject to pain and vicissitude, not a 'study, ' not a statue--that inevitably one suffers with him. Jessie Conrad, too, is alive in these pages, and their son Borys so much so that Stape can't help wanting to give him a good thrashing. Especially striking in the scope of this superb biography is its organic human trajectory, the evolution of Conrad from where he began to what he became. The undistinguished young Conrad could really be anyone at all; the old Conrad is Conrad, and not because the image is so familiar--those omniscient creases fanning out of all-seeing eyes that have known dread. One finishes reading in something like a state of personal mourning: a life that is as sad as it is triumphant."
--Cynthia Ozick, author of "Heir to the Glimmering"
"From the Hardcover edition."
"Brilliantly concise and often witty. . . . Stape has pressed into one volume all the basic factual information anyone is likely to want to know about Conrad's life."
--"The Washington Post Book World"
"A balanced, detailed, thoroughly researched book that is filled with fresh insights into this rather enigmatic man. . . . Terrific."
--"Tucson Citizen"
"Stape flushes out many facts we've not seen before. He sets various records straight, debunking myths about Conrad."
--"The Weekly Standard"
"Stape's desire to strip out the myths and not to add more is to be admired. . . . There [are] wonderful glimpses of [Conrad] through the eyes of his friends."
--"The Economist"
"Stape delivers a usefully compact . . . biography that draws on material not available to his predecessors."
--"The Seattle Times"
Brilliantly concise and often witty. . . . Stape has pressed into one volume all the basic factual information anyone is likely to want to know about Conrad's life.
The Washington Post Book World
A balanced, detailed, thoroughly researched book that is filled with fresh insights into this rather enigmatic man. . . . Terrific.
Tucson Citizen
Stape flushes out many facts we've not seen before. He sets various records straight, debunking myths about Conrad.
The Weekly Standard
"Stape's desire to strip out the myths and not to add more is to be admired. . . . There [are] wonderful glimpses of [Conrad] through the eyes of his friends."
The Economist
"Stape delivers a usefully compact . . . biography that draws on material not available to his predecessors."
The Seattle Times"
Book Description
Published to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad is a brilliant and highly readable biography of a literary figure of world-wide reputation.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDoubleday of Canada
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 038566169X
- ISBN 13 9780385661690
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages378
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