Kate’s 2¢: “Almayer’s folly” by Joseph Conrad

“Almayer’s folly” by Joseph Conrad

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Norman Barrs did an excellent job of narrating this classic. I was entranced and mesmerized by the wonderful descriptions of the jungle flora and fauna, the river  with its many moods, people  with their personalities and interactions.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Polish: [ˈjuzɛf tɛˈɔdɔr ˈkɔnrat kɔʐɛˈɲɔfskʲi] Play audioⓘ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and story writer.[2][note 1] He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and – though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties (always with a strong foreign accent) – he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.[note 2]

He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depicted crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.[note 3]

Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others,[note 4] though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism.[9] His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim,[10] have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works.

Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written mostly in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.[note 5]

Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parcelled out among three occupying empires[16][note 6]—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.[18]

Life

Early years

Conrad was born on 3 December 1857, in Berdychiv (Polish: Berdyczów), Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire; the region had once been part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.[19] 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 and Konrad Wallenrod. His family called him “Konrad”, rather than “Józef”.[note 7]

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.[22] Polish literature, particularly patriotic literature, was held in high esteem by the area’s Polish population.[23]

Poland had been 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 Napoleon’s Russian campaign and had formed his own cavalry squadron during the November 1830 Uprising of Poland-Lithuania against the Russian Empire.[24] 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.[25][note 8]

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 Romantic poetry. Half a century later, he explained that

“The Polishness in my works comes from Mickiewicz and 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. Later I preferred Słowacki. You know why Słowacki?… [He is the soul of all Poland]”.[31]

In the autumn of 1866, young Conrad was sent for a year-long retreat, for health reasons, to Kiev and his mother’s family estate at Novofastiv [de].[32]

In December 1867, Apollo took his son to the Austrian-held part of Poland, which for two years had been enjoying considerable internal freedom and a degree of self-government. After sojourns in 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.[33] Like Conrad’s mother, Apollo had been gravely ill with tuberculosis.[34]

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 1863 Uprising; group conversation there was in French. The owner’s daughter recalled:

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…[38]

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.[39]

On 13 October 1874, Bobrowski sent the sixteen-year-old to Marseille, France, for Conrad’s planned merchant-marine career on French merchant ships,[36] providing him with a monthly stipend of 150 francs.[32] 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 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.[40] 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.[41]

Tensions that originated in his childhood in Poland and increasing in his adulthood abroad contributed to Conrad’s greatest literary achievements.[42] Zdzisław Najder, himself an emigrant from Poland, observed:

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…[43]

Some critics have suggested that when Conrad left Poland, he wanted to break once and for all with his Polish past.[44] 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:

… 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![45]

Merchant marine

From the web:

Norman Barrs was born on November 6, 1917 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Yeomen of the Guard (1957), Fireside Theatre (1949) and King Richard II (1954). He died on December 14, 1991 in New York City, New York, USA.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Almayer’s folly DB12473

Author: Conrad, Joseph

Reading Time: 6 hours, 41 minutes

Production: A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Norman Barrs

Subject: Literature

Conrad’s first novel, a tragedy set in Malaya, dramatizes the clash between East and West. Almayer is a Dutch merchant, ruined and despairing after twenty-five years in the East and marriage to a hateful Malayan woman. He dreams of escaping with his beautiful daughter, Nina. But Almayer fails to consult Nina, whose plans involving Dain, a native, foil Almayer’s attempt to escape his self-delusion.

New York, Penguin Books, 1976.

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