Joseph Conrad tried to deflect attention from the similarities between his life and his writing, but in the early works the affinites are strong. "Youth" (1902), about a novice sailor's first trip to Asia, closely tracks Conrad's 1881 voyage to Bangkok: the leaking ship, the cargo of coal, and the explosion are present in the story as they were in life.
Heart of Darkness (1902), narrated, like "Youth," by Marlow, draws its incidents from Conrad's time as a steamer pilot on the Congo in 1890; Mr. Kurtz shares certain (exaggerated) features with the English journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Its story became known to millions when it was transposed to Vietnam for the film Apocalypse Now. "An Outpost of Progress" (1896) can be read as a sort of trial run for Heart of Darkness.
"The Secret Sharer" (1910) uses a doppelgänger (twin) theme to explore the claims of personal loyalty against those of impersonal justice.
About the Author
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) grew up amid political unrest in Russian-occupied Poland. After twenty years at sea with the French and British merchant navies, he settled in England in 1894. Over the next three decades he revolutionized the English novel with books such as Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent, and especially Heart of Darkness, his best-known and most influential work.
