Biographie de l'auteur :
Conrad was born on 12/3/1857, in a part of Russia that had once belonged to Poland. His parents were members of the landed gentry, but as ardent Polish patriots they suffered considerably for their political views. Orphaned at 11, Conrad attended school in Cracow but concluded that there was no future for him in occupied Poland, and at 16 he left forever. The sea was Conrad's love and career for the next 20 years; in the British merchant navy, he rose finally to captain, sailing to Australia and Borneo and surviving at least one shipwreck. In 1890 he became captain of a Congo River steamer, but this led only to disillusionment and ill health and this would become the basis for Conrad's masterpiece, Heart of Darkness. Reluctantly leaving the merchant service, he settled in England and completed his first novel, Almayer's Folly, already begun at sea. His subsequent works, many of which drew upon his sea experiences, include The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), The Secret Sharer (1910), and Chance (1913). The man who was 21 before he spoke a word of English is now regarded as one of the superb English stylists of all time. Conrad died at his desk in 1924.
Présentation de l'éditeur :
HEART OF DARKNESS In 1889, Joseph Conrad journeyed to Colonial Africa to assume command of a Congo River steamboat. There he discovered the dark nature of European exploitation of the peoples and natural resources of a continent, as well as the darkness and dangers of nature itself. HEART OF DARKNESS is a dramatization of Conrad’s experiences and discoveries. Narrated in the vocabulary of Conrad’s storyteller Marlow, the author expresses the horrors of a system he has grown to despise. Just as forcefully, he reveals the darkness that participation in such a system can visit upon the human soul. THE SECRET SHARER Joseph Conrad, once a captain in the same seas where this story is set, chooses his fictional captain to narrate his story. At anchor near a group of small islands, the new captain of the Sephora is surprised by a swimmer close by. He takes him aboard and discovers that he, Leggat by name, is fleeing punishment on another ship for a "murder." The captain hears his story and takes him aboard. But is his story true. Should he be concealed from the crew, who surely know the unproven captain's legal responsibilities? Can the young captain's future, not to mention the safety of the crew, be put at risk on the strength of a desperate man's tale?
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