Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was a Polish-British novelist, regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties.
He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable and amoral world.
Conrad was admired for the richness of his prose and his renderings of dangerous life at sea and in exotic places. He sailed in the French Merchant Service and later served 16 years in the British Merchant Navy, with many of his travels providing him with literary material he would later use in his novels.
Conrad married the 22-year-old Jessie George in 1895 and settled in southeast England, where his life as an author was plagued by poor health, near poverty and difficulties of temperament. His most famous works include: Heart of Darkness (1899), Nostromo (1904) and the Secret Agent (1907). It was not until 1910 after the publication of what are considered some of his finest novels, that his financial situation became more secure.
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