Konrad Dzhozef

Joseph Conrad was an English writer. A Pole by origin, he gained recognition as a classic of English literature.

Józef Korzeniowski was born in the village of Terekhovo into the family of a Polish nobleman, the poet Apollo Korzeniowski, who was related to the famous Kaidannikovs. In 1861 Apollo Korzeniowski was exiled to Vologda for his participation in the Polish liberation movement. His wife, Ewelina Korzeniowska (Bobrowska), followed her husband with their four-year-old son.

In 1865, because of his wife’s illness, Apollo Korzeniowski obtained a transfer to Chernihiv. After the move that same year, Józef’s mother died of consumption. Father and son moved first to Lviv, then to Kraków, where in 1869 Apollo Korzeniowski died, leaving 11-year-old Józef a complete orphan. The boy was taken into the family of Tadeusz Bobrowski, his maternal uncle.

Under the influence of English and French adventure novels, Józef wanted to become a sailor. In 1874, with Bobrowski’s consent, 17-year-old Józef left for Marseille. In 1875–1877 he sailed on various ships, including taking part in smuggling weapons for supporters of Don Carlos’s claim to the Spanish throne.

At the beginning of the 1880s, Conrad moved to England. On different ships he served as a seaman and second mate; in 1884 he passed the examination for first mate, and in 1886 he obtained a captain’s certificate. That same year he received British citizenship, officially changed his name to Joseph Conrad, and wrote his first story, “The Black Navigator.”

In 1890, as captain of the steamer Rua de Belz, he traveled along the Congo River. During this journey he fell ill with malaria and rheumatism, which permanently undermined his health. His African impressions later formed the basis of the novella Heart of Darkness.

In 1893, in the port of Adelaide, writer John Galsworthy boarded his ship Torrens; Conrad gave him the manuscript of his