Joseph Conrad: A Biography [Paperback]

Jeffrey Meyers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2001

In Joseph Conrad: A Biography, acclaimed writer Jeffrey Meyers presents the definitive account of the life of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), author of Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Nostromo, and many other landmarks in modern literature. Meyers' biography, published for the first time in paperback by Cooper Square Press, is the first biography of the author in many years. Joseph Conrad brings to light new information about Conrad's life and its impact on his fiction: new models emerge for his characters, including Heart of Darkness' Kurtz, and Meyers also examines in great detail Conrad's relationship with the wild and beautiful American journalist Jane Anderson.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To his distinguished biogrpahies of Hemingway, Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence and others, Meyers now adds a study of the elusive author of Nostromo and Victor , and he comes up with all sorts of little-known or unpublished material. Meyers provides new insights into Conrad's troubled Polish childhood, his harsh 20 years as a seaman, his rash involvement in the Carlist wars, his marriage to a placid woman who was the perfect foil to his neurasthenic personality and his friendships with the likes of Madox Ford, Galsworthy, Stephen Crane and Henry James. In his role as passionate literary detective, Meyers finds real-life sources of lead characters in Heart of Darkness, Under Western Eyes and The Arrow of Gold (about the tempestuous American journalist, Jane Anderson, with whom Conrad had an affair). The author gives us a clear perspective on both the life (1857-1924) and achievements of a writer who, racked by gout, guilt and debt most of his life (his novels were more often praised than read), mastered a foreign language in middle age to become one of its greatest craftsmen. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The prolific Meyers ( D.H. Lawrence, LJ 5/15/90) here offers the first major biography of Conrad since Frederick R. Karl's Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives ( LJ 12/1/78). Karl excels with the early years, Meyers with the later. Extensive research, both anecdotal and archival, has resulted in a wealth of new information on Conrad's seafaring career (including sample questions from the Master's exam), his marriage, his friendship with Ford--even on the real-life model for Kurtz. Possibly of most interest is extensive coverage of Conrad's affair with the wild and eccentric American journalist Jane Anderson, with an appendix dealing with Anderson's unusual life. Meyers always has an eye to how life experience colors the fiction, but not to the extent that the book will be accessible only to Conradians. This is highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90.
- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press; 1st Cooper Square Press ed edition (February 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081541112X
• ISBN-13: 978-0815411123
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, if you've read his works., November 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Joseph Conrad: A Biography (Paperback)

I bought this book after reading Heart of Darkness, Victory, and the Secret Sharer. I wanted to know more about the man who wrote such haunting fiction. The beginning of this book gives an excellent and riveting account of Conrad's parents and their political exile. After Conrad's mother dies he remains with his father in severe and isolated conditions. A detailed account of Conrad's early life helped me to understand how he wrote what he did. Quite fascinating. Also, he did visit the Congo and had experiences there that give great insight into Heart of Darkness. Including marking people he met that are models for characters in the story. Plus he was a seaman, so we learn how he could write realistically on this subject. And we learn about Conrad's psyche, his strengths and weaknesses. I loved learning about his life, but this bio also goes into some detail about all of Conrad's novels. If you haven't read them you may become lost. If you have read all his works this bio will definitely increase your appreciation and add to your understanding of this great writer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A serviceable biography, August 10, 2008

By 

R. M. Peterson (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joseph Conrad: A Biography (Paperback)

I happen to think that Joseph Conrad was one of the ten greatest authors writing in English in the 20th Century (although his first works were published in the 1890s). Among other things that strike me every time I read him, I marvel that English was not his native language. I finally got around to reading this now 17-year-old biography, and among the things I learned was that throughout Conrad's life, both writing and speaking English were quite difficult for him; he had to work at it. (The book also tells us that at the time, Conrad's decision to write in "an alien language was unique," although later Nabokov, Koestler, Dinesen, Beckett, and Ionesco achieved similar distinction writing in a foreign language.)

On balance, this is a serviceable biography, but not a distinguished one. According to the credits at the front of the book, the author, Jeffrey Meyers, had written seven biographies previously, and at times JOSEPH CONRAD, his eighth, shows signs of being the product of a biography hack. Occasionally, the narrative flow is mildly jerky or disjointed; the book is larded with a few too many quotations from other sources; and several fatuous remarks escaped the editor's blue pencil. The book conveys no sense of enthusiasm or passion on the part of the author, either for the subject or the craft of biography. In addition, Meyers is not shy about tooting his own horn about the "new" information he adds to our collective picture of Conrad (see the Preface), including, in particular, Conrad's affair during WWI with a femme fatale, Jane Anderson (who, in her own right, led a rather remarkable if not admirable life, going from a star-crossed childhood in Georgia and Arizona to paramour of noted literati and nobles in Britain to being charged by the U.S. for treason in connection with WWII activities in Nazi Germany).

Meyers does not devote much discussion to literary analysis of most of Conrad's work, with the exceptions of "Nostromo", "Victory", and "The Rescue." Rather than a literary biography, this is more a straightforward biography. In workmanlike and acceptably readable fashion, it covers the significant people and events of Conrad's remarkable life and limns a very complex and surprisingly insecure novelist.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read for conrad fans, August 18, 2003

By 

A. Wayne Thompson IV (Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joseph Conrad: A Biography (Hardcover)

There's a lot of detail here about his life, too much, perhaps, but certainly among the great 20th century writers conrad led one of the more interesting lives. I was more interested in a study of his works, what inspired him to write stories like lord jim and the secret agent (incidentally victory, one of conrad's best, overlooked works does get this sort of detailed inspection - but it is the exception) but for the most part meyers speeds through these parts. But if you have an interest in conrad, have read a number of his stories and would like to know more, then I certainly recommend this biography.