Joseph Conrad was born in Russian-occupied Poland in 1857 to an aristocratic family involved in anti-Russian activities. For two decades (c. 1878 to 1895), he traveled to many parts of the world while working on various merchant vessels that plied trade routes between Europe, Africa and Asia. Conrad spoke and wrote three languages fluently—Polish, French, and English—but he published mainly in English and became a British citizen. His illustrious writing career began in 1895 with the publication of Almayer’s Folly, a novel that takes place in what is now the Indonesian archipelago and set the tone for much of his later work about the colonial world. First published in book form in 1900, Lord Jim, his fourth major work, established him as one of the foremost English-language writers of the time. The novel shares its setting with Almayer’s Folly, but goes far beyond that work in respect to experimental style and psychological depth. Although Conrad would go on to write several novels that take place in Europe, he remains best known for his colonial fiction, especially Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1899– 1900) and Nostromo (1904).
European imperialism and trade in south and southeast Asia.
