Joseph Conrad: A Biography - Softcover

Meyers, Jeffrey

3.84

56 ratings by Goodreads

9780719549106: Joseph Conrad: A Biography

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719549108 ISBN 13: 9780719549106

Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 1991

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The outlines of Conrad's life are well known - how he spent 20 years at sea and amassed the experience he would later transmute into some of the 20th century's finest and most original novels; how he became a great stylist in English, his third language and one he spoke at times incomprehensibly; and how he struggled for success and solvency while presenting himself in the - in fact outlandishly eccentric - guise of an English gentleman. The author reveals much here that is new on Conrad's Polish background, the Carlist Wars in Spain in which he was briefly caught up, his pro-semitism, his suicide attempt, his meeting with T.E.Lawrence, and - most importantly - his love affair with the wild and beautiful American journalist Jane Anderson, who became a traitor in the World War II. He discusses for the first time an unpublished film scenario written by Conrad at the end of his life. There are also many new connections to be found here between characters in Conrad's novels and characters in his life.

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Review:

Shrewdly and sensitively written, and clearly inspired by a great admiration for its subject.--Joyce Carol Oates "The New York Times "

Meyers has looked hard at the raw materials of Conrad's life and has made the right connections. The resulting portrait is stunning and compelling.--Jay Parini, author of The Last Station "Los Angeles Times "

About the Author:

Jeffrey Meyers is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the author of Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy, Hemingway: Life into Art, and Gary Cooper: An American Hero, (all available from Cooper Square Press), in addition to biographies of Humphrey Bogart, D. H. Lawrence, Edmund Wilson, and George Orwell. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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