The Life of Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography (Blackwell Critical Biographies) - Hardcover

Batchelor, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631164162 ISBN 13: 9780631164166

Publisher: Blackwell Pub, 1993

Synopsis

Joseph Conrad, who was born in the Ukraine in 1857, brought up in Poland and schooled in the merchant marine, died near Canterbury in 1924, having become a major British novelist of the period 1895-1920. John Batchelor's biography of this enigmatic figure uses archive material, as well as published sources, to reveal the close relationship, at every stage of Conrad's writing career, between the life and the work. Conrad was both depressive and delinquent. He manipulated friends, such as Ford Madox Ford, Edward Garnett and John Galsworthy, into relationships that went at least some way to meeting his urgent psychological needs. He suffered from virulent writer's block, and would accept substantial advances from publishers and his agent, J.B. Pinker, for works which he then found himself unable or unwilling to write. Many of his best-known works, "Heart of Darkness" , "Lord Jim" and "Nostromo", for example, can be seen as forms of escape from uncongenial duties. Batchelor's study, which includes an account of the complex and fugitive Polish background, reveals Conrad as being one of the most tormented and self-defeating of Britain's literary figures.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and died near Canterbury in 1924, having become the major British novelist of his time. John Batchelor's important new biography of this most extraordinary, enigmatic figure, uses archive material, as well as published sources, to reveal the especially close relationship, at every stage of Conrad's writing career, between his life and work.

Conrad was both depressive and delinquent. He manipulated friends, such as Ford Madox Ford, Edward Garnett, and John Galsworthy, into relationships that went at least some way to meeting his urgent psychological needs. He suffered from virulent writer's block, and would accept substantial advances from publishers and his agent, J. B. Pinker, for works which he then found himself unable or unwilling to write. Many of his best-known works, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and Nostromo, for example, can be seen as forms of escape from uncongenial duties.

Batchelor's study, which gives full account of the complex and fugitive Polish background, reveals, with enormous skill, Conrad, the great writer, as being also one of the most tormented and self-defeating of our literary figures.

About the Author:

John Batchelor is Joseph Cowen Professor and Head of the Department of English Literature at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was formerly Fellow and Senior Tutor of New College, Oxford. His previous books include Mervyn Peake: A Biographical and Critical Exploration (1974), The Edwardian Novelists (1982), H.G. Wells (1985), a full-length study of Conrad's Lord Jim (1983) and an edition of Victory (1986).

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackwell Pub
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0631164162
• ISBN 13: 9780631164166
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344