The Portable Conrad (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Conrad, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143105116 ISBN 13: 9780143105114

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2007

Synopsis

A collection of Conrad's most enduring work, edited by Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gorra

A great novelist of the sea, a poet of the tropics, a critic of empire and analyst of globalization, a harbinger of the modern spy novel, an unparalleled observer of the moments in which people are stripped of their illusions-Joseph Conrad is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. This revised edition of The Portable Conrad features the best known and most enduring of Conrad's works, including The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness, and The Nigger of the "Narcissus," as well as shorter tales like "Amy Forster" and "The Secret Sharer," a selection of letters, and his observations on the sinking of the Titanic.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph Conrad (originally Józef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under Tsarist autocracy. In 1896 he settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such modern classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924. Today Conrad is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction in English—his third language.

Michael Gorra is a professor of English at Smith College. His books include The Bells in Their Silence: Travels Through Germany and After Empire: Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie. His book, Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece (2012), was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography. 

Review

"This is the best one-volume selection of Conrad available. Michael Gorra's learned and acute introduction puts both Conrad, and Conrad criticism, in essential context."
-James Wood

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143105116
• ISBN 13: 9780143105114
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 752