Editing Joseph Conrad (section)

==Life==
===Early years===
[[File:Współpracownicy "Kłosów" Pisarze Korzeniowski Apollo (78212).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Conrad's writer father, [[Apollo Korzeniowski]]]]
Conrad was born on 3 December 1857 in [[Berdychiv]] ({{langx|pl|Berdyczów}}), [[Ukraine]], then part of the [[Russian Empire]]; the region had once been part of the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zins|first=Henryk|title=Joseph Conrad and Africa|year=1982|publisher=Kenya Literature Bureau|location=Nairobi|page=12}}</ref> He was the only child of [[Apollo Korzeniowski]]—a writer, translator, political activist, and would-be revolutionary—and his wife Ewa Bobrowska. He was christened ''Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski'' after his maternal grandfather Józef, his paternal grandfather Teodor, and the heroes (both named "Konrad") of two poems by [[Adam Mickiewicz]], ''[[Dziady (poem)|Dziady]]'' and ''[[Konrad Wallenrod]]''. His family called him "Konrad", rather than "Józef".{{NoteTag|Conrad's biographer [[Zdzisław Najder]] wrote,

::"...  When he was baptized at the age of two days, on 5 December 1857 in [[Berdyczów]], no [[birth certificate]] was recorded because the baptism was only 'of water.'  And during his official, documented baptism (in [[Żytomierz]]) five years later, he himself was absent, as he was in [[Warsaw]], awaiting exile into Russia together with his parents.

::"Thus there is much occasion for confusion.  This is attested by errors on tablets and monuments.  But examination of documents—not many, but quite a sufficient number, survive—permits an entirely certain answer to the title question.

::"On 5 December 1857 the future writer was christened with three given names:  ''Józef'' (in honor of his maternal grandfather), ''Teodor'' (in honor of his paternal grandfather) and ''Konrad'' (doubtless in honor of the hero of part III of [[Adam Mickiewicz]]'s ''[[Dziady (poem)|Dziady]]''). These given names, in this order (they appear in no other order in any records), were given by Conrad himself in an extensive autobiographical letter to his friend [[Edward Garnett]] of 20 January 1900.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Conrad|first=Joseph|editor-last=Najder|editor-first=Zdzisław|title=Listy J. Conrada|year=1968|location=Warsaw|language=Polish}}</ref>

::"However, in the official birth certificate (a copy of which is found in the [[Jagiellonian University]] Library in [[Kraków]], manuscript no. 6391), only one given name appears:  ''Konrad''.  And that sole given name was used in their letters by his parents, Ewa, ''née'' Bobrowska, and [[Apollo Korzeniowski]], as well as by all members of the family.

::"He himself signed himself with this single given name in letters to Poles.  And this single given name, and the surname 'Korzeniowski,' figured in his passport and other official documents.  For example, when 'Joseph Conrad' visited his native land after a long absence in 1914, just at the outbreak of World War I, the papers issued to him by the military authorities of the Imperial-Royal [[Austro-Hungarian Monarchy]] called him 'Konrad Korzeniowski.'"<ref>{{Cite web|last=Najder|first=Zdzislaw|url=http://www.nbp.pl/aktualnosci/wiadomosci_2007/conradzn.pdf|title=Jak się nazywał Joseph Conrad? ("What Was Joseph Conrad's Name?")|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=1 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301072949/http://www.nbp.pl/aktualnosci/wiadomosci_2007/conradzn.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Though the vast majority of the surrounding area's inhabitants were Ukrainians, and the great majority of Berdychiv's residents were Jewish, almost all the countryside was owned by the Polish ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobility), to which Conrad's family belonged as bearers of the [[Nałęcz coat-of-arms]].{{sfnp|Stape|2007|p=2}} Polish literature, particularly patriotic literature, was held in high esteem by the area's Polish population.{{sfnp|Stewart|1968|p=1}}

Poland had been [[Third Partition of Poland|divided among Prussia, Austria and Russia in 1795]]. The Korzeniowski family had played a significant role in Polish attempts to regain independence. Conrad's paternal grandfather Teodor had served under Prince [[Józef Poniatowski]] during [[French invasion of Russia|Napoleon's Russian campaign]] and had formed his own cavalry squadron during the [[November Uprising|November 1830 Uprising]] of Poland-Lithuania against the Russian Empire.{{sfnp|Meyers|1991|pp=2–3}} Conrad's fiercely patriotic father Apollo belonged to the "Red" political faction, whose goal was to re-establish the pre-partition boundaries of Poland and that also advocated land reform and the abolition of serfdom. Conrad's subsequent refusal to follow in Apollo's footsteps, and his choice of exile over resistance, were a source of lifelong guilt for Conrad.{{sfnp|Meyers|1991|pp=10–11, 18}}{{NoteTag|"Russia's defeat by Britain, France and Turkey [in the Crimean War] had once again raised hopes of Polish independence.  Apollo celebrated his son's christening with a characteristic patriotic–religious poem: "To my son born in the 85th year of Muscovite oppression". It alluded to the [[First Partition of Poland|partition of 1772]], burdened the new-born [...] with overwhelming obligations, and urged him to sacrifice himself as Apollo would for the good of his country:<br /> 'Bless you, my little son:<br /> Be a Pole! Though foes<br /> May spread before you<br /> A web of happiness<br /> Renounce it all: love your poverty...<br /> Baby, son, tell yourself<br /> You are without land, without love,<br /> Without country, without people,<br /> While Poland – your Mother is in her grave<br /> For only your Mother is dead – and yet<br /> She is your faith, your palm of martyrdom...<br /> This thought will make your courage grow,<br /> Give Her and yourself immortality.'"{{sfnp|Meyers|1991|p=10}}}}

[[File:Nowy7DSC 1095.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|[[Nowy Świat]] 47, [[Warsaw]], where three-year-old Conrad lived with his parents in 1861]]

Because of the father's attempts at farming and his political activism, the family moved repeatedly. In May 1861 they moved to [[Warsaw]], where Apollo joined the resistance against the Russian Empire. He was arrested and imprisoned in Pavilion X{{NoteTag|"X" is the [[Roman numeral]] for "Ten".}} – the dread [[Warsaw Citadel|Tenth Pavilion]] – of the [[Warsaw Citadel]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Taborski|first=Roman|year=1969|volume=XIV|title=Korzeniowski, Apollo|encyclopedia=[[Polski słownik biograficzny]]|publisher=[[Polska Akademia Nauk]]|location=[[Wrocław]]|pages=167–68}}</ref> Conrad would write: "[I]n the courtyard of this Citadel—characteristically for our nation—my childhood memories begin."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=19}} On 9 May 1862 Apollo and his family were exiled to [[Vologda]], {{convert|500|km|mi}} north of Moscow and known for its bad climate.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=19–20}} In January 1863 Apollo's sentence was commuted, and the family was sent to [[Chernihiv]] in northeast Ukraine, where conditions were much better. However, on 18 April 1865 Ewa died of [[tuberculosis]].{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=19–25}}

Apollo did his best to teach Conrad at home. The boy's early reading introduced him to the two elements that later dominated his life: in [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[Toilers of the Sea]]'', he encountered the sphere of activity to which he would devote his youth; [[Shakespeare]] brought him into the orbit of English literature. Most of all, though, he read [[Polish Romanticism|Polish Romantic poetry]]. Half a century later he explained that 
<blockquote>"The Polishness in my works comes from [[Adam Mickiewicz|Mickiewicz]] and [[Juliusz Słowacki|Słowacki]]. My father read [Mickiewicz's] ''[[Pan Tadeusz]]'' aloud to me and made me read it aloud.... I used to prefer [Mickiewicz's] ''[[Konrad Wallenrod]]'' [and] ''[[Grażyna (poem)|Grażyna]]''. Later I preferred Słowacki. You know why Słowacki?... [He is the soul of all Poland]".{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=27}}</blockquote>

In the autumn of 1866 young Conrad was sent for a year-long retreat, for health reasons, to [[Kyiv|Kiev]]<!--Consensus is to not change "Kiev" to "Kyiv" per WP:KYIV--> and his mother's family estate at {{ill|Novofastiv|de|Nowofastiw}}.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}}

In December 1867 Apollo took his son to the [[Austrian Poland|Austrian-held part of Poland]], which for two years had been enjoying considerable internal freedom and a degree of self-government. After sojourns in [[Lviv|Lwów]] and several smaller localities, on 20 February 1869 they moved to [[Kraków]] (until 1596 the capital of Poland), likewise in Austrian Poland. A few months later, on 23 May 1869, Apollo Korzeniowski died, leaving Conrad orphaned at the age of eleven.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=31–34}} Like Conrad's mother, Apollo had been gravely ill with tuberculosis.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=26}} 
[[File:Tadeusz Bobrowski.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|[[Tadeusz Bobrowski]], Conrad's maternal uncle, mentor, benefactor]]
The young Conrad was placed in the care of Ewa's brother, [[Tadeusz Bobrowski]]. Conrad's poor health and his unsatisfactory schoolwork caused his uncle constant problems and no end of financial outlay. Conrad was not a good student; despite tutoring, he excelled only in geography.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=43}} At that time he likely received only private tutoring, as there is no evidence he attended any school regularly.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}} Since the boy's ill health was clearly of nervous origin, the physicians supposed that fresh air and physical work would harden him; his uncle hoped that well-defined duties and the rigors of work would teach him discipline. Since he showed little inclination to study, it was essential that he learn a trade; his uncle thought he could work as a sailor-cum-businessman, who would combine maritime skills with commercial activities.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=44–46}} In the autumn of 1871, thirteen-year-old Conrad announced his intention to become a sailor. He later recalled that as a child he had read (apparently in French translation) [[Leopold McClintock]]'s book about his 1857–59 expeditions in the ''[[Fox (ship)|Fox]]'', in search of Sir [[John Franklin]]'s lost ships ''{{HMS|Erebus|1826|2}}'' and ''{{HMS|Terror|1813|2}}''.{{NoteTag|It was still an age of exploration, in which Poles participated: [[Paweł Edmund Strzelecki]] mapped the Australian interior; the writer [[:pl:Sygurd Wiśniowski|Sygurd Wiśniowski]], having sailed twice around the world, described his experiences in Australia, Oceania and the United States; [[Jan Kubary]], a veteran of the [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]], explored the Pacific islands.}} Conrad also recalled having read books by the American [[James Fenimore Cooper]] and the English Captain [[Frederick Marryat]].{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=41–42}} A playmate of his adolescence recalled that Conrad spun fantastic yarns, always set at sea, presented so realistically that listeners thought the action was happening before their eyes.

In August 1873 Bobrowski sent fifteen-year-old Conrad to Lwów to a cousin who ran a small boarding house for boys orphaned by the [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]]; group conversation there was in French. The owner's daughter recalled:
{{Blockquote|He stayed with us ten months... Intellectually he was extremely advanced but [he] disliked school routine, which he found tiring and dull; he used to say... he... planned to become a great writer.... He disliked all restrictions. At home, at school, or in the living room he would sprawl unceremoniously. He... suffer[ed] from severe headaches and nervous attacks...{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=43–44}}}}

Conrad had been at the establishment for just over a year when in September 1874, for uncertain reasons, his uncle removed him from school in Lwów and took him back to Kraków.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=44}}

On 13 October 1874 Bobrowski sent the sixteen-year-old to [[Marseille]], France, for Conrad's planned merchant-marine career on French merchant ships,{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=44–46}} providing him with a monthly stipend of 150 francs.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}} Though Conrad had not completed secondary school, his accomplishments included fluency in French (with a correct accent), some knowledge of Latin, German and Greek; probably a good knowledge of history, some geography, and probably already an interest in physics. He was well read, particularly in [[Romanticism in Poland|Polish Romantic literature]]. He belonged to the second generation in his family that had had to earn a living outside the family estates. They were born and reared partly in the milieu of the working [[intelligentsia]], a social class that was starting to play an important role in Central and Eastern Europe.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=46–47}} He had absorbed enough of the history, culture and literature of his native land to be able eventually to develop a distinctive [[world view]] and make unique contributions to the literature of his adoptive Britain.{{sfnp|Stewart|1968|pp=1–5}}

Tensions that originated in his childhood in Poland and increasing in his adulthood abroad contributed to Conrad's greatest literary achievements.{{sfnp|Stewart|1968|pp=246–47}} [[Zdzisław Najder]], himself an emigrant from Poland, observed:
{{Blockquote|Living away from one's natural environment—family, friends, social group, language—even if it results from a conscious decision, usually gives rise to... internal tensions, because it tends to make people less sure of themselves, more vulnerable, less certain of their... position and... value... The Polish ''[[szlachta]]'' and... intelligentsia were social strata in which reputation... was felt... very important... for a feeling of self-worth. Men strove... to find confirmation of their... self-regard... in the eyes of others... Such a psychological heritage forms both a spur to ambition and a source of constant stress, especially if [one has been inculcated with] the idea of [one]'s public duty...{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=47}}}}

Some critics have suggested that when Conrad left Poland, he wanted to break once and for all with his Polish past.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=97}} In refutation of this, Najder quotes from Conrad's 14 August 1883 letter to family friend Stefan Buszczyński, written nine years after Conrad had left Poland:

{{blockquote|...  I always remember what you said when I was leaving [Kraków]:  "Remember"—you said—"wherever you may sail, you are sailing towards Poland!"

That I have never forgotten, and never will forget!{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=96}}}}

===Merchant marine===
{{main|Joseph Conrad's career at sea}}
In Marseille Conrad had an intense social life, often stretching his budget.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}} A trace of these years can be found in the northern [[Corsica]] town of [[Luri, Haute-Corse|Luri]], where there is a plaque to a Corsican merchant seaman, Dominique Cervoni, whom Conrad befriended.  Cervoni became the inspiration for some of Conrad's characters, such as the title character of the 1904 novel ''[[Nostromo]]''. Conrad visited Corsica with his wife in 1921, partly in search of connections with his long-dead friend and fellow merchant seaman.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://eddieplayfair.com/2014/08/06/conrad-in-corsica/| title=Conrad in Corsica| date=2014-08-06| access-date=25 October 2018| archive-date=12 April 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412004250/https://eddieplayfair.com/2014/08/06/conrad-in-corsica/| url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2020}}
[[File:Otago bark 1869.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[Otago (barque)|Otago]]'', the [[barque]] captained by Conrad in 1888 and first three months of 1889]] 
In late 1877, Conrad's maritime career was interrupted by the refusal of the Russian consul to provide documents needed for him to continue his service. As a result, Conrad fell into debt and, in March 1878, he attempted suicide. He survived, and received further financial aid from his uncle, allowing him to resume his normal life.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}} After nearly four years in France and on French ships, Conrad joined the British merchant marine, enlisting in April 1878 (he had most likely started learning English shortly before).{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=173}}

For the next fifteen years, he served under the [[Red Ensign]]. He worked on a variety of ships as crew member (steward, apprentice, [[able seaman]]) and then as third, second and first mate, until eventually achieving captain's rank. During the 19 years from the time that Conrad had left [[Kraków]], in October 1874, until he signed off the ''Adowa'', in January 1894, he had worked in ships, including long periods in port, for 10 years and almost 8 months. He had spent just over 8 years at sea—9 months of it as a passenger.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=187}} His sole captaincy took place in 1888–89, when he commanded the [[barque]] [[Otago (barque)|''Otago'']] from [[Sydney]] to [[Mauritius]].{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}}

During a brief call in India in 1885–86, 28-year-old Conrad sent five letters to Joseph Spiridion,{{NoteTag|Joseph Spiridion's full name was "Joseph Spiridion Kliszczewski" but he used the abbreviated form, presumably from deference to British ignorance of Polish pronunciation. Conrad seems to have picked up this idea from Spiridion: in his fourth letter, he signed himself "J. Conrad"—the first recorded use of his future pen name.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=103–04}}}} a Pole eight years his senior whom he had befriended at [[Cardiff]] in June 1885, just before sailing for Singapore in the [[clipper]] [[Full-rigged ship|ship]] ''Tilkhurst''. These letters are Conrad's first preserved texts in English. His English is generally correct but stiff to the point of artificiality; many fragments suggest that his thoughts ran along the lines of Polish [[syntax]] and [[phraseology]].

More importantly, the letters show a marked change in views from those implied in his earlier correspondence of 1881–83. He had abandoned "hope for the future" and the conceit of "sailing [ever] toward Poland", and his [[Panslavism|Panslavic]] ideas. He was left with a painful sense of the hopelessness of the [[Polish question]] and an acceptance of England as a possible refuge. While he often adjusted his statements to accord to some extent with the views of his addressees, the theme of hopelessness concerning the prospects for Polish independence often occurs authentically in his correspondence and works before 1914.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=104–05}}

[[File:JOSEPH CONRAD 1857-1924 Novelist lived here.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Conrad lived at 17 Gillingham Street, [[Pimlico]], central London after returning from the Congo]]
The year 1890 marked Conrad's first return to Poland, where he would visit his uncle and other relatives and acquaintances.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}}{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=140-142}} This visit took place while he was waiting to proceed to the [[Congo Free State]], having been hired by [[Albert Thys]], deputy director of the ''[[Société Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo]]''.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=138–144}} Conrad's association with the Belgian company, on the [[Congo River]], would inspire his novella, ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}} During this 1890 period in the [[Congo Free State|Congo]], Conrad befriended [[Roger Casement]], who was also working for Thys, operating a trading and transport station in [[Matadi]]. In 1903, as British Consul to Boma, Casement was commissioned to investigate [[Atrocities in the Congo Free State|abuses in the Congo]], and later in Amazonian Peru, and was knighted in 1911 for his advocacy of [[human rights]]. Casement later became active in [[Irish Republicanism]] after leaving the British consular service.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=149–51}}{{NoteTag|A quarter-century later, in 1916, when Casement was sentenced to death for treason, Conrad, though he had hoped Casement would not be so sentenced, declined to join an appeal for clemency by many English writers, including Conrad's friend [[John Galsworthy]].{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=480}} In 1920 Conrad told his niece Karola Zagórska, visiting him in England: "Casement did not hesitate to accept honours, decorations and distinctions from the English Government while surreptitiously arranging various affairs that he was embroiled in. In short: he was plotting against those who trusted him."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=481}}}}

[[File:Torrens (ship, 1875) - NMM P6434.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|''[[Torrens (clipper ship)|Torrens]]'': Conrad made two round trips as [[first mate]], [[London]] to [[Adelaide]], between November 1891 and July 1893.]] 
Conrad left Africa at the end of December 1890, arriving in Brussels by late January of the following year. He rejoined the British merchant marines, as first mate, in November.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=161-167}} When he left London on 25 October 1892 aboard the passenger clipper ship ''[[Torrens (clipper ship)|Torrens]]'', one of the passengers was William Henry Jacques, a [[tuberculosis|consumptive]] [[Cambridge University]] graduate who died less than a year later on 19 September 1893. According to Conrad's ''[[A Personal Record]]'', Jacques was the first reader of the still-unfinished manuscript of Conrad's ''[[Almayer's Folly]]''. Jacques encouraged Conrad to continue writing the novel.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=181}}
[[File:John galsworthy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[John Galsworthy]], whom Conrad met on ''[[Torrens (clipper ship)|Torrens]]'']]
Conrad completed his last long-distance voyage as a seaman on 26 July 1893 when the ''Torrens'' docked at London and "J. Conrad Korzemowin"—per the certificate of discharge—debarked. 

When the ''Torrens'' had left Adelaide on 13 March 1893, the passengers had included two young Englishmen returning from Australia and New Zealand: 25-year-old lawyer and future novelist [[John Galsworthy]]; and Edward Lancelot Sanderson, who was going to help his father run a boys' preparatory school at [[Elstree School|Elstree]]. They were probably the first Englishmen and non-sailors with whom Conrad struck up a friendship and he would remain in touch with both. In one of Galsworthy's first literary attempts, ''The Doldrums'' (1895–96), the protagonist—first mate Armand—is modelled after Conrad. 

At Cape Town, where the ''Torrens'' remained from 17 to 19 May, Galsworthy left the ship to look at the local mines. Sanderson continued his voyage and seems to have been the first to develop closer ties with Conrad.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=182–83}} Later that year, Conrad would visit his relatives in Poland and Ukraine once again.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}}{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=183-185}}

===Writer===
[[File:Joseph Conrad 1916.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Conrad in 1916 (photo by [[Alvin Langdon Coburn]])]]
In the autumn of 1889, Conrad began writing his first novel, ''[[Almayer's Folly]]''.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=134}}

{{blockquote|[T]he son of a writer, praised by his [maternal] uncle [Tadeusz Bobrowski] for the beautiful style of his letters, the man who from the very first page showed a serious, professional approach to his work, presented his start on ''[[Almayer's Folly]]'' as a casual and non-binding incident...  [Y]et he must have felt a pronounced need to write.  Every page right from th[e] first one testifies that writing was not something he took up for amusement or to pass time.  Just the contrary:  it was a serious undertaking, supported by careful, diligent reading of the masters and aimed at shaping his own attitude to art and to reality.... [W]e do not know the sources of his artistic impulses and creative gifts.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=135}} }}

Conrad's later letters to literary friends show the attention that he devoted to analysis of style, to individual words and expressions, to the emotional tone of phrases, to the atmosphere created by language.  In this, Conrad in his own way followed the example of [[Gustave Flaubert]], notorious for searching days on end for ''[[mot juste|le mot juste]]''—for the right word to render the "essence of the matter." [[Zdzisław Najder|Najder]] opined:

"[W]riting in a foreign language admits a greater temerity in tackling personally sensitive problems, for it leaves uncommitted the most spontaneous, deeper reaches of the psyche, and allows a greater distance in treating matters we would hardly dare approach in the language of our childhood.  As a rule it is easier both to swear and to analyze dispassionately in an acquired language."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=136–37}}

In 1894, aged 36, Conrad reluctantly gave up the sea, partly because of poor health, partly due to unavailability of ships, and partly because he had become so fascinated with writing that he had decided on a literary career. ''[[Almayer's Folly]]'', set on the east coast of [[Borneo]], was published in 1895. Its appearance marked his first use of the pen name "Joseph Conrad"; "Konrad" was, of course, the third of his Polish [[given name]]s, but his use of it—in the anglicised version, "Conrad"—may also have been an [[Homage (arts)|homage]] to the Polish [[Romanticism in Poland|Romantic]] poet [[Adam Mickiewicz]]'s patriotic narrative poem, ''[[Konrad Wallenrod]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Echoes from Konrad Wallenrod in ''Almayer's Folly'' and ''A Personal Record''|journal=Nineteenth-Century Literature|jstor=2902971|author=Jean M. Szczypien|year=1998|volume=53|issue=1|pages=91–110|doi=10.2307/2902971}}</ref>

[[Edward Garnett]], a young publisher's reader and literary critic who would play one of the chief supporting roles in Conrad's literary career, had—like Unwin's first reader of ''[[Almayer's Folly]]'', [[Wilfrid Hugh Chesson]]—been impressed by the manuscript, but Garnett had been "uncertain whether the English was good enough for publication." Garnett had shown the novel to his wife, [[Constance Garnett]], later a translator of Russian literature. She had thought Conrad's foreignness a positive merit.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=197}}

While Conrad had only limited personal acquaintance with the peoples of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], the region looms large in his early work. According to Najder, Conrad, the exile and wanderer, was aware of a difficulty that he confessed more than once: the lack of a common cultural background with his [[Anglophone]] readers meant he could not compete with English-language authors writing about the [[English-speaking world]]. At the same time, the choice of a non-English colonial setting freed him from an embarrassing division of loyalty: ''Almayer's Folly'', and later "[[An Outpost of Progress]]" (1897, set in a [[Congo Free State|Congo]] exploited by King [[Leopold II of Belgium]]) and ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' (1899, likewise set in the Congo), contain bitter reflections on [[colonialism]]. The Malay states came theoretically under the suzerainty of the [[Government of the Netherlands|Dutch government]]; Conrad did not write about the area's British dependencies, which he never visited. He "was apparently intrigued by... struggles aimed at preserving national independence. The prolific and destructive richness of tropical nature and the dreariness of human life within it accorded well with the pessimistic mood of his early works."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=118–20}}{{NoteTag|A comprehensive account of Conrad's Malay fiction is given by [[Robert Gavin Hampson|Robert Hampson]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hampson|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Gavin Hampson|title=Cross-Cultural Encounters in Joseph Conrad's Malay Fiction|year=2000|publisher=Palgrave}}</ref>}}

''Almayer's Folly'', together with its successor, ''[[An Outcast of the Islands]]'' (1896), laid the foundation for Conrad's reputation as a romantic teller of exotic tales—a misunderstanding of his purpose that was to frustrate him for the rest of his career.{{NoteTag|After ''[[The Mirror of the Sea]]'' was published on 4 October 1906 to good, sometimes enthusiastic reviews by critics and fellow writers, Conrad wrote his French translator:  "The critics have been vigorously swinging the [[censer]] to me.... Behind the concert of flattery, I can hear something like a whisper: 'Keep to the open sea!  Don't land!' They want to banish me to the middle of the ocean."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=371}}}}

Almost all of Conrad's writings were first published in newspapers and magazines: influential reviews like ''[[The Fortnightly Review]]'' and the ''[[North American Review]]''; avant-garde publications like the ''[[The Savoy (periodical)|Savoy]]'', ''New Review'', and ''[[The English Review]]''; popular short-fiction magazines like ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' and ''[[Harper's Magazine]]''; women's journals like the ''[[Pictorial Review]]'' and ''Romance''; mass-circulation dailies like the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' and the ''[[New York Herald]]''; and illustrated newspapers like ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' and the ''Illustrated Buffalo Express''.{{sfnp|Karl|1979|p=341}} He also wrote for ''[[The Outlook (British magazine)|The Outlook]]'', an imperialist weekly magazine, between 1898 and 1906.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Imperialism Tempered by Expediency: Conrad and ''The Outlook'' |first=Scott A. |last=Cohen |journal=Conradiana |volume=41 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2009 |pages=48–66 |doi=10.1353/cnd.0.0030|s2cid=161661633 }}</ref>{{NoteTag|Serialization in periodicals, of installments often written from issue to issue, was standard practice for 19th- and early-20th-century novelists. It was done, for example, by [[Charles Dickens]] in England, and by [[Bolesław Prus]] in Poland.}}

Financial success long eluded Conrad, who often requested advances from magazine and book publishers, and loans from acquaintances such as John Galsworthy.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=349–59 ''et passim''}}{{NoteTag|[[Zdzisław Najder|Najder]] argued that "three factors, national, personal, and social, converge[d] to exacerbate his financial difficulties: the traditional Polish impulse to cut a dash even if it means going into debt; the personal inability to economize; and the silent pressure to imitate the lifestyle of the [British] wealthy middle class to avoid being branded... a denizen of the abyss of poverty..."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=358}}}} Eventually a government grant ("[[civil list]] pension") of £100 per annum, awarded on 9 August 1910, somewhat relieved his financial worries,{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=420}}{{NoteTag|Conrad renounced the grant in a 2 June 1917 letter to the Paymaster General.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=495}}}} and in time collectors began purchasing his [[manuscript]]s. Though his talent was early on recognised by English intellectuals, popular success eluded him until the 1913 publication of ''[[Chance (Conrad novel)|Chance]]'', which is often considered one of his weaker novels.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}}

===Personal life===
[[File:TIMEMagazine7Apr1923.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 7 April 1923]]

====Temperament and health====
Conrad was a reserved man, wary of showing emotion. He scorned sentimentality; his manner of portraying emotion in his books was full of restraint, scepticism and irony.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=575}} In the words of his uncle [[Tadeusz Bobrowski|Bobrowski]], as a young man Conrad was "extremely sensitive, conceited, reserved, and in addition excitable. In short [...] all the defects of the ''Nałęcz'' family."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=65}}

Conrad suffered throughout life from ill health, physical and mental. A newspaper review of a Conrad biography suggested that the book could have been subtitled ''Thirty Years of Debt, Gout, Depression and Angst''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Upchurch|first=Michael|title=A compact portrait of a troubled author in John Stape's ''The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad''|url=http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2004280033_conrad16.html|newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]]|date=14 March 2008|archive-date=18 October 2012|access-date=19 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018220627/http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2004280033_conrad16.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1891 he was hospitalised for several months, suffering from [[gout]], neuralgic pains in his right arm and recurrent attacks of malaria. He also complained of swollen hands "which made writing difficult". Taking his uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski's advice, he convalesced at a spa in Switzerland.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=169–70}} Conrad had a phobia of [[dentistry]], neglecting his teeth until they had to be extracted. In one letter he remarked that every novel he had written had cost him a tooth.{{sfnp|Meyers|1991|p=258}} Conrad's physical afflictions were, if anything, less vexatious than his mental ones. In his letters he often described symptoms of depression; "the evidence", writes Najder, "is so strong that it is nearly impossible to doubt it."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=167}}

====Attempted suicide====
In March 1878, at the end of his [[Marseille]] period, 20-year-old Conrad attempted suicide, by shooting himself in the chest with a revolver.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dean|first=Biron|title=The Death of the Writer|date=2011|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/52-may-2011/316-the-death-of-the-writer|journal=Australian Book Review|volume=331|pages=36–44|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140917143910/https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/52-may-2011/316-the-death-of-the-writer |archive-date=17 September 2014 }}</ref> According to his uncle, who was summoned by a friend, Conrad had fallen into debt. Bobrowski described his subsequent "study" of his nephew in an extensive letter to [[:pl:Stefan Buszczyński|Stefan Buszczyński]], his own ideological opponent and a friend of Conrad's late father [[Apollo Korzeniowski|Apollo]].{{NoteTag|"Although Konrad had been absolutely certain of accompanying Captain Escarras on his next voyage, the ''Bureau de l'Inscription'' forbade him to go on the grounds of his being a 21-year-old alien who was under the obligation of... military service in his own country. Then it was discovered... he had never had a permit from his [c]onsul—the ex-Inspector of the Port of Marseilles was summoned who... had [certified] the existence of such a permit—he was... reprimanded and nearly lost his job—which was undoubtedly very unpleasant for Konrad. The whole affair became... widely known, and all endeavors by... Captain [Escarras] and the ship-owner [Jean-Baptiste Delestang] proved fruitless... and Konrad was forced to stay behind with no hope of serving on French vessels. However, before all this happened another catastrophe—this time financial—befell him. While still in possession of the 3,000 fr[ancs] sent to him for the voyage, he met his former captain, Mr. Duteil, who persuaded him to participate in some enterprise on the coasts of Spain—some kind of contraband!  He invested 1,000 fr[ancs] in it and made over 400, which pleased them greatly, so... on the second occasion he put in all he had—and lost the lot. ... Duteil... then went off to [[Buenos Aires]]. ... Konrad was left behind, unable to sign on for a ship—poor as a church mouse and, moreover, heavily in debt—for while speculating he had lived on credit... [H]e borrows 800 fr[ancs] from his [German] friend [Richard] Fecht and sets off for... Villefranche, where an American squadron was anchored,... inten[ding to] join... the American service. He achieves nothing there and, wishing to improve his finances, tries his luck in [[Monte Carlo]] and loses the 800 fr[ancs] he had borrowed. Having managed his affairs so excellently, he returns to Marseilles and one fine evening invites his friend the creditor [Fecht] to tea, for an appointed hour, and before his arrival attempts to take his life with a revolver. (Let this detail remain between us, as I have been telling everyone that he was wounded in a duel....) The bullet goes... through... near his heart without damaging any vital organ. Luckily, all his addresses were left on top of his things so that this worthy Mr. Fecht could instantly let me know...

... Apart from the 3,000 fr[ancs] which [Konrad] had lost, I had to pay as much again to settle his debts. Had he been my own son, I wouldn't have done it, but... in the case of my beloved sister's son, I had the weakness to act against [my] principles... Nevertheless, I swore that even if I knew that he would shoot himself a second time—there would be no repetition of the same weakness on my part. To some extent, also, I was influenced by considerations of our national honor, so that it should not be said that one of us had exploited the affection, which Konrad undoubtedly enjoyed, of all those with whom he came into contact....

My study of the Individual has convinced me that he is not a bad boy, only one who is extremely sensitive, conceited, reserved, and in addition excitable. In short, I found in him all the defects of the ''Nałęcz'' family. He is able and eloquent—he has forgotten nothing of his Polish although, since he left [Kraków], I was the first person he conversed with in his native tongue. He appears to know his profession well and to like it. [He declined Bobrowski's suggestion that he return to Poland, maintaining that he loved his profession.]..."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=65}}}} To what extent the suicide attempt had been made in earnest likely will never be known, but it is suggestive of a situational depression.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=65–67}}

====Romance and marriage====
In 1888 during a stop-over on [[Mauritius]], in the [[Indian Ocean]], Conrad developed a couple of romantic interests.  One of these would be described in his 1910 story "A Smile of Fortune", which contains autobiographical elements (e.g., one of the characters is the same Chief Mate Burns who appears in ''[[The Shadow Line (novel)|The Shadow Line]]''). The narrator, a young captain, flirts ambiguously and surreptitiously with Alice Jacobus, daughter of a local merchant living in a house surrounded by a magnificent rose garden. Research has confirmed that in Port Louis at the time there was a 17-year-old Alice Shaw, whose father, a shipping agent, owned the only rose garden in town.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=126–27}}

More is known about Conrad's other, more open flirtation. An old friend, Captain Gabriel Renouf of the French merchant marine, introduced him to the family of his brother-in-law. Renouf's eldest sister was the wife of Louis Edward Schmidt, a senior official in the colony; with them lived two other sisters and two brothers. Though the island had been taken over in 1810 by Britain, many of the inhabitants were descendants of the original French colonists, and Conrad's excellent French and perfect manners opened all local salons to him. He became a frequent guest at the Schmidts', where he often met the Misses Renouf. A couple of days before leaving Port Louis, Conrad asked one of the Renouf brothers for the hand of his 26-year-old sister Eugenie. She was already, however, engaged to marry her pharmacist cousin. After the rebuff, Conrad did not pay a farewell visit but sent a polite letter to Gabriel Renouf, saying he would never return to Mauritius and adding that on the day of the wedding his thoughts would be with them.

[[File:Westbere House Geograph-2802100-by-N-Chadwick.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Westbere House, in [[Canterbury]], Kent, was once owned by Conrad. It is [[Listed building#England and Wales|listed Grade II]] on the [[National Heritage List for England]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Westbere House |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/12349/12 |access-date=24 June 2023 |agency=Historic England |archive-date=24 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624100939/https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/12349/12 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
On 24 March 1896 Conrad married an Englishwoman, Jessie George.{{sfnp|Najder|1969|p=174}} The couple had two sons, Borys and John. The elder, Borys, proved a disappointment in scholarship and integrity.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=427, 454, 545–46, ''et passim''}} Jessie was an unsophisticated, working-class girl, sixteen years younger than Conrad.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=218–19}} To his friends, she was an inexplicable choice of wife, and the subject of some rather disparaging and unkind remarks.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=222–24, 292}} (See Lady Ottoline Morrell's opinion of Jessie in [[#Impressions|Impressions]].) However, according to other biographers such as [[Frederick R. Karl|Frederick Karl]], Jessie provided what Conrad needed, namely a "straightforward, devoted, quite competent" companion.{{sfnp|Karl|1979|p=341}} Similarly, Jones remarks that, despite whatever difficulties the marriage endured, "there can be no doubt that the relationship sustained Conrad's career as a writer", which might have been much less successful without her.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=S.|title= Conrad and Women|year=1999|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|page=36}}</ref>

When in 1923 Jessie Conrad published ''A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House'', it came with a preface from Joseph Conrad praising "the conscientious preparation of the simple food of everyday life, not the... concoction of idle feasts and rare dishes."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67482/67482-h/67482-h.htm |title=A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House, by Jessie Conrad—A Project Gutenberg eBook |access-date=30 October 2024 |archive-date=4 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241204034735/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67482/67482-h/67482-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The couple rented a long series of successive homes, mostly in the English countryside. Conrad, who suffered frequent depressions, made great efforts to change his mood; the most important step was to move into another house. His frequent changes of home were usually signs of a search for psychological regeneration.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=419}} Between 1910 and 1919 Conrad's home was Capel House in [[Orlestone]], Kent, which was rented to him by Lord and Lady Oliver. It was here that he wrote ''[[The Rescue (Conrad novel)|The Rescue]]'', ''[[Victory (novel)|Victory]]'', and ''[[The Arrow of Gold]]''.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1184965|desc=Capel House, Orlestone, Kent|grade=II|last=|access-date=21 November 2023}}</ref>

Except for several vacations in France and Italy, a 1914 vacation in his native Poland, and a 1923 visit to the United States, Conrad lived the rest of his life in England.

===Sojourn in Poland===
[[File:Willa Konstantynówka.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|In 1914 Conrad and family stayed at the [[Zakopane]] ''Willa Konstantynówka'', operated by his cousin Aniela Zagórska, mother of his future Polish translator of the same name.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=462–63}}]]
[[File:Aniela Zagórska, Karola Zagórska and Joseph Conrad 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5| Conrad's nieces [[Aniela Zagórska]] (''left''), Karola Zagórska; Conrad]]
The 1914 vacation with his wife and sons in Poland, at the urging of [[Józef Retinger]], coincided with the outbreak of World War I. On 28 July 1914, the day war broke out between [[Austria-Hungary]] and [[Serbia]], Conrad and the Retingers arrived in [[Kraków]] (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), where Conrad visited childhood haunts. 

As the city lay only a few miles from the Russian border, there was a risk of being stranded in a battle zone. With wife Jessie and younger son John ill, Conrad decided to take refuge in the mountain resort town of [[Zakopane]]. They left Kraków on 2 August. A few days after arrival in Zakopane, they moved to the Konstantynówka ''[[pension (lodging)|pension]]'' operated by Conrad's cousin Aniela Zagórska; it had been frequented by celebrities including the statesman [[Józef Piłsudski]] and Conrad's acquaintance, the young concert pianist [[Artur Rubinstein]].{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=458–63}}

Zagórska introduced Conrad to Polish writers, intellectuals, and artists who had also taken refuge in Zakopane, including novelist [[Stefan Żeromski]] and Tadeusz Nalepiński, a writer friend of anthropologist [[Bronisław Malinowski]]. Conrad aroused interest among the Poles as a famous writer and an exotic compatriot from abroad. He charmed new acquaintances, especially women. 

However, [[Marie Curie]]'s physician sister, [[Bronisława Dłuska]], wife of fellow physician and eminent socialist activist [[Kazimierz Dłuski]], openly berated Conrad for having used his great talent for purposes other than bettering the future of his native land.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=463–64}}{{NoteTag|Fifteen years earlier, in 1899, Conrad had been greatly upset when the novelist [[Eliza Orzeszkowa]], responding to a misguided article by [[Wincenty Lutosławski]], had expressed views similar to Dłuska's.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=292–95}}}}{{NoteTag|On another occasion, in a 14 February 1901 letter to his namesake Józef Korzeniowski, a librarian at [[Kraków]]'s [[Jagiellonian University]], Conrad had written, partly in reference to some Poles' accusation that he had deserted the Polish cause by writing in English:  "It is widely known that I am a Pole and that Józef Konrad are my [given] names, the latter being used by me as a surname so that foreign mouths should not distort my real surname—a distortion which I cannot stand. It does not seem to me that I have been unfaithful to my country by having proved to the English that a gentleman from the [[Ukraine]] [Conrad had been born in a part of [[Ukraine]] that had belonged to [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Poland]] before [[Second Partition of Poland|1793]]] can be as good a sailor as they, and has something to tell them in their own language."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=311–12}}}}

But thirty-two-year-old [[Aniela Zagórska]] (daughter of the ''pension'' keeper), Conrad's niece who would translate his works into Polish in 1923–39, idolised him, kept him company, and provided him with books. He particularly delighted in the stories and novels of the ten-years-older, recently deceased [[Bolesław Prus]]{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=463}}{{sfnp|Najder|1984|p=209}} (who also had visited Zakopane<ref>Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''[[Bolesław Prus]], 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' ([[Bolesław Prus]], 1847–1912: A Calendar of His Life and Work), edited by [[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, pp. 232, 235, ''et passim''.</ref>), read everything by his fellow victim of Poland's [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]]—"my beloved Prus"—that he could get his hands on, and pronounced him "better than [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]"—a favourite English novelist of Conrad's.{{sfnp|Najder|1984|pp=215, 235}}{{NoteTag|Conrad's enthusiasm for Prus contrasted with his low regard for other Polish novelists of the time, including [[Eliza Orzeszkowa]], [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]], and [[Stefan Żeromski]].{{sfnb|Najder|2007|pp=403, 454, 463}}}}

Conrad, who was noted by his Polish acquaintances to still be fluent in his native tongue, participated in their impassioned political discussions. He declared presciently, as [[Józef Piłsudski]] had earlier in 1914 in Paris, that in the war, for Poland to regain independence, Russia must be beaten by the [[Central Powers]] (the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires), and the Central Powers must in turn be beaten by [[French Third Republic|France]] and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]].{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=464}}{{NoteTag|Soon after World War I, Conrad said of Piłsudski: "He was the only great man to emerge on the scene during the war." Conrad added: "In some aspects he is not unlike [[Napoleon]], but as a type of man he is superior. Because Napoleon, his genius apart, was like all other people and Piłsudski is different."{{sfnp|Najder|1984|p=239}}}}

After many travails and vicissitudes, at the beginning of November 1914 Conrad managed to bring his family back to England. On his return, he was determined to work on swaying British opinion in favour of restoring Poland's sovereignty.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=464–68}}

Jessie Conrad would later write in her memoirs: "I understood my husband so much better after those months in Poland. So many characteristics that had been strange and unfathomable to me before, took, as it were, their right proportions. I understood that his temperament was that of his countrymen."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=466}}

===Politics===
Biographer Zdzisław Najder wrote: {{blockquote|Conrad was passionately concerned with politics. [This] is confirmed by several of his works, starting with ''[[Almayer's Folly]]''.  [...]  ''[[Nostromo]]'' revealed his concern with these matters more fully; it was, of course, a concern quite natural for someone from a country [Poland] where politics was a matter not only of everyday existence but also of life and death.  Moreover, Conrad himself came from a social class that claimed exclusive responsibility for state affairs, and from a very politically active family. [[Norman Douglas]] sums it up:  "Conrad was first and foremost a Pole and like many Poles a politician and moralist ''malgré lui'' [French:  "in spite of himself"]. These are his fundamentals."  [What made] Conrad see political problems in terms of a continuous struggle between law and violence, anarchy and order, freedom and autocracy, material interests and the noble idealism of individuals [...] was Conrad's historical awareness.  His Polish experience endowed him with the perception, exceptional in the Western European literature of his time, of how winding and constantly changing were the front lines in these struggles.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=352}}}}

The most extensive and ambitious political statement that Conrad ever made was his 1905 essay, "Autocracy and War", whose starting point was the [[Russo-Japanese War]] (he finished the article a month before the [[Battle of Tsushima Strait]]). The essay begins with a statement about Russia's incurable weakness and ends with warnings against [[Prussia]], the dangerous aggressor in a future European war. For Russia he predicted a violent outburst in the near future, but Russia's lack of democratic traditions and the backwardness of her masses made it impossible for the revolution to have a salutary effect. Conrad regarded the formation of a representative government in Russia as unfeasible and foresaw a transition from autocracy to dictatorship. He saw western Europe as torn by antagonisms engendered by economic rivalry and commercial selfishness. In vain might a Russian revolution seek advice or help from a materialistic and egoistic western Europe that armed itself in preparation for wars far more brutal than those of the past.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=351–54}}
[[File:Joseph Conrad, by Jacob Epstein.jpg|thumb|left|Conrad's bust by [[Jacob Epstein]], 1924. Conrad called it "a wonderful piece of work of a somewhat monumental dignity, and yet—everybody agrees—the likeness is striking"{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=568}}]]
Conrad's distrust of democracy sprang from his doubts whether the propagation of democracy as an aim in itself could solve any problems. He thought that, in view of the weakness of [[human nature]] and of the "criminal" character of society, democracy offered boundless opportunities for [[demagogue]]s and [[charlatan]]s.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=290}}  Conrad kept his distance from partisan politics, and never voted in British national elections.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=570}}

He accused [[social democrats]] of his time of acting to weaken "the national sentiment, the preservation of which [was his] concern"—of attempting to dissolve national identities in an impersonal melting-pot.  "I look at the future from the depth of a very black past and I find that nothing is left for me except fidelity to a cause lost, to an idea without future."  It was Conrad's hopeless fidelity to the memory of Poland that prevented him from believing in the idea of "international fraternity", which he considered, under the circumstances, just a verbal exercise. He resented some socialists' talk of freedom and world brotherhood while keeping silent about his own partitioned and oppressed Poland.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=290}}

Before that, in the early 1880s, letters to Conrad from his uncle [[Tadeusz Bobrowski|Tadeusz]]{{NoteTag|Conrad's own letters to his uncle in Ukraine, writes Najder, were destroyed during World War I.}} show Conrad apparently having hoped for an improvement in Poland's situation not through a liberation movement but by establishing an alliance with neighbouring Slavic nations. This had been accompanied by a faith in the [[Panslavism|Panslavic]] ideology—"surprising", Najder writes, "in a man who was later to emphasize his hostility towards Russia, a conviction that... Poland's [superior] civilization and... historic... traditions would [let] her play a leading role... in the Panslavic community, [and his] doubts about Poland's chances of becoming a fully sovereign nation-state."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=88–89}}

Conrad's alienation from ''partisan'' politics went together with an abiding sense of the thinking man's burden imposed by his personality, as described in an 1894 letter by Conrad to a relative-by-marriage and fellow author, [[Marguerite Poradowska]] (''née'' Gachet, and cousin of [[Vincent van Gogh]]'s physician, [[Paul Gachet]]) of Brussels:

{{blockquote|We must drag the chain and ball of our personality to the end. This is the price one pays for the infernal and divine privilege of thought; so in this life it is only the chosen who are convicts—a glorious band which understands and groans but which treads the earth amidst a multitude of phantoms with maniacal gestures and idiotic grimaces. Which would you rather be:  idiot or convict?{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=195}} }}

Conrad wrote [[H. G. Wells]] that the latter's 1901 book, ''[[Anticipations]]'', an ambitious attempt to predict major social trends, "seems to presuppose... a sort of select circle to which you address yourself, leaving the rest of the world outside the pale. [In addition,] you do not take sufficient account of human imbecility which is cunning and perfidious."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=MacKenzie|first1=Norman|last2=MacKenzie|first2=Jeanne|author-link1=Norman MacKenzie (journalist)|author-link2=Jeanne MacKenzie|year=1973|title=H.G. Wells: a Biography|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|page=167}}</ref>{{NoteTag|In a second edition of ''Anticipations'' (1902), Wells included a note at the end of chapter 1 acknowledging a suggestion regarding "the possibility (which my friend Mr. Joseph Conrad has suggested to me) of sliding cars along practically frictionless rails."}}

In a 23 October 1922 letter to mathematician-philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]], in response to the latter's book, ''The Problem of China'', which advocated socialist reforms and an [[oligarchy]] of sages who would reshape Chinese society, Conrad explained his own distrust of political panaceas:

{{blockquote|I have never [found] in any man's book or... talk anything... to stand up... against my deep-seated sense of fatality governing this man-inhabited world.... The only remedy for Chinamen and for the rest of us is [a] change of hearts, but looking at the history of the last 2000 years there is not much reason to expect [it], even if man has taken to flying—a great "uplift" no doubt but no great change....{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=548–49}} }}

Leo Robson writes:

{{blockquote|Conrad... adopted a broader [[irony|ironic]] stance—a sort of blanket incredulity, defined by a character in ''[[Under Western Eyes (novel)|Under Western Eyes]]'' as the negation of all faith, devotion, and action.  Through control of tone and narrative detail... Conrad exposes what he considered to be the naïveté of movements like [[anarchism]] and socialism, and the self-serving logic of such historical but "naturalized" phenomena as capitalism (piracy with good [[Public relations|PR]]), [[rationalism]] (an elaborate defense against our innate irrationality), and [[imperialism]] (a grandiose front for old-school rape and pillage).  To be ironic is to be awake—and alert to the prevailing "somnolence."  In ''[[Nostromo]]''... the journalist Martin Decoud... ridicul[es] the idea that people "believe themselves to be influencing the fate of the universe."  ([[H. G. Wells]] recalled Conrad's astonishment that "I could take social and political issues seriously."){{sfnp|Robson|2017|pp=93–94}}}}

But, writes Robson, Conrad is no moral nihilist:

{{blockquote|If irony exists to suggest that there's more to things than meets the eye, Conrad further insists that, when we pay close enough attention, the "more" can be endless.  He doesn't reject what [his character] [[Charles Marlow|Marlow]] [introduced in ''[[Youth (Conrad short story)|Youth]]''] calls "the haggard utilitarian lies of our civilisation" in favor of nothing; he rejects them in favor of "something", "some saving truth", "some exorcism against the ghost of doubt"—an intimation of a deeper order, one not easily reduced to words.  Authentic, self-aware emotion—feeling that doesn't call itself "theory" or "wisdom"—becomes a kind of standard-bearer, with "impressions" or "sensations" the nearest you get to solid proof.{{sfnp|Robson|2017|p=94}}}}

In an August 1901 letter to the editor of ''The New York Times Saturday Book Review'', Conrad wrote:  "Egoism, which is the moving force of the world, and altruism, which is its morality, these two contradictory instincts, of which one is so plain and the other so mysterious, cannot serve us unless in the incomprehensible alliance of their irreconcilable antagonism."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=315}}{{NoteTag|This may have been Conrad's central insight that so enthralled Lady Ottoline Morrell and Bertrand Russell (see [[#Impressions|"Impressions"]]).{{sfnp|Najder|2007|pp=447–48}}}}

===Death===
[[File:Joseph Conrad grave.jpg|thumb|225px|Conrad's grave at Canterbury Cemetery, near [[Harbledown]], Kent]]
On 3 August 1924, Conrad died at his house, Oswalds, in [[Bishopsbourne]], Kent, England, probably of a heart attack. He was interred at Canterbury Cemetery, [[Canterbury]], under a misspelled version of his original Polish name, as "Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski".{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=573}}  Inscribed on his gravestone are the lines from [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' which he had chosen as the [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] to his last complete novel, ''[[The Rover (novel)|The Rover]]'':

{{blockquote|Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,<br>
Ease after warre, death after life, doth greatly please{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=574}}  }}

Conrad's modest funeral took place amid great crowds. His old friend [[Edward Garnett]] recalled bitterly:

{{blockquote|To those who attended Conrad's funeral in Canterbury during the Cricket Festival of 1924, and drove through the crowded streets festooned with flags, there was something symbolical in England's hospitality and in the crowd's ignorance of even the existence of this great writer. A few old friends, acquaintances and pressmen stood by his grave.{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=573}} }}

Another old friend of Conrad's, [[Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham|Cunninghame Graham]], wrote Garnett:  "[[Georges Jean-Aubry|Aubry]] was saying to me... that had [[Anatole France]] died, all Paris would have been at his funeral."{{sfnp|Najder|2007|p=573}}

Conrad's wife Jessie died twelve years later, on 6 December 1936, and was interred with him.

In 1996 his grave was designated a Grade II [[listed building|listed structure]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-454429-canterbury-city-cemetery-joseph-conrad-m|title=Canterbury City Cemetery: Joseph Conrad Memorial, Canterbury, Kent|publisher=British Listed Buildings|access-date=16 January 2021|archive-date=28 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128112653/http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-454429-canterbury-city-cemetery-joseph-conrad-m|url-status=live}}</ref>

Conrad, though nominally a Catholic, is described by biographer [[Jeffrey Meyers]] as having been an atheist.<ref>"Like [Joseph] Conrad, [his wife] Jessie was nominally a Catholic but actually an atheist." [[Jeffrey Meyers]], ''Joseph Conrad: a Biography'', New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991, {{ISBN|0-684-19230-6}}, p. 139.</ref>