(born Dec. 3, 1857, Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Aug. 3, 1924, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.) Polish-British novelist and short-story writer. His father was a Polish patriot who was exiled to northern Russia, and Conrad was an orphan by age 12.
He managed to join the French merchant marine and in 1878 the British merchant navy, where he pursued a career for most of the next 15 years; his naval experiences would provide the material for most of his novels. Though he knew little English before he was 20, he became one of the master English stylists. He is noted for tales in rich prose of dangerous life at sea and in exotic places, settings he used to reveal his real concern, his deeply pessimistic vision of the human struggle. Of his many novels, which include Almayer's Folly (1895), The Nigger of the “Narcissus” (1897), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), and Under Western Eyes (1911), several are regarded as masterpieces. He also published seven story collections; the novella “Heart of Darkness” (1902) is his most famous shorter work and the basis for Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979). Conrad's influence on later novelists has been profound.
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