Conrad Joseph: 705 books

Conrad's aim was 'by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel . . . before all, to make you see' Heart of Darkness, his exploration of European colonialism in Africa and of elusive human values, embodies more profoundly than almost any other modern fiction the difficulty of...

Heart of Darkness has been considered for most of this century as a literary classic, and also as a powerful indictment of the evils of imperialism. It reflects the savage repressions carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time. Conrad's...

Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity once more. But his life alters...

Describes a band of frustrated revolutionary exiles in Geneva. This book is a study of individuals under pressure, and it remains a telling account of the fugitive life - especially in its portrait of Razumov, heir to the long line of Russian anti-heroes in Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Turgenev. In...

'Then, on a fine moonlight night, all the rats left the ship.' Five men sit around a mahogany table, drinking claret. As the wine loosens their tongues, one tells a story from his youth, recounting the strange voyage of the doomed ship Judea. Inspired by Conrad's own experiences at sea, Youth is a haunting tale about ill omens, the passing of time and the making of a man.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘The girl he had come across … that human being so near and still so strange, gave him a greater sense of his own reality than he had ever known in all his life.’ Damaged by his father’s nihilistic philosophy,...

Set in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, Victory tells the story of a disillusioned Swede, Axel Heyst, who rescues Lena, a young English musician, from the clutches of a brutish German hotel owner. Seeking refuge at Heyst’s remote island retreat on Samburan, the couple is soon besieged by three...

'he murmured with conviction - speaking aloud to himself in the shock of the penetrating thought: I am a lost man' Peter Willems, a clerk in Macassar, granted a 'second chance' at a remote river trading post, falls ever more hopelessly into traps set by himself and others. The pawn of Babalatchi, the...

It is a mighty force that of mere chance, absolutely irresistible yet manifesting itself often in delicate forms such for instance as the charm, true or illusory, of a human being. In "Flora de Barral", the slender, dreamy, morbidly charming daughter of a parvenu financier, Conrad creates...

"El corazón de las tinieblas" es una de las novelas más estremecedoras de todos los tiempos. A través de la descripción de la larga travesía de Marlow por el río Congo en pos del enigmático señor Kurtz, Conrad nos descubre los horrores que, en nombre de la civilización, han ido perpetrando...

El pirata (1923) fue la última novela del genial escritor polaco, inglés de adopción, e ilustra a la perfección esa mezcla de narrativa realista y drama romántico tan típico de sus relatos. Ya he comentado otras veces que las historias de ambientación marinera son muy frecuentes en Conrad,...

Romanzo breve pubblicato nel 1902, come molta della produzione letteraria dell'epoca vide la luce inizialmente su una rivista inglese, il 'Blackwood's Magazine', in tre episodi. La storia di un povero trovatello che dopo una vita di avventurose violenze trova infine il proprio riscatto è lo spunto...

Tra i romanzi di Conrad, forse nessuno ha avuto fin dal suo apparire (1899) tanta fortuna critica e tanto successo quanto Cuore di tenebra. Certo è che questo breve e inquietante romanzo ci introduce, come ha osservato Calvino, «nel nodo dei problemi che dominerà la cultura occidentale del Novecento»....

La «linea d’ombra» conradiana non è solo quella che si deve oltrepassare per lasciare indietro la giovinezza e addentrarsi nella maturità. Essa affonda nell’inconoscibile, nel “perturbante”, è una sottile linea di demarcazione, sempre presente, mai visibile. Il giovane capitano di mare protagonista...