A Personal Record Annotated

Joseph Conrad, alias Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was born in Ukraine in 1857, in the midst of the autocracy of the Tsars. The son of a Polish couple in exile, he was orphaned at an early age. He is raised and educated by his uncle, who is responsible for what would be the central passion of his life: the sea. He travelled to Marseille in 1874, serving aboard French merchant ships before finally joining the crew of an English ship in 1878. In 1886 he obtained British nationality and a Master's Certificate in the British Mercantile Service. Eight years later he left the sea to dedicate himself to writing, publishing his first novel - 'Almayer's Folly', in 1895. He continued to write and publish until his death in 1924. Conrad is the author, among other works, of Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), Heart of Darkness, Heart of Darkness (1902). He is now considered one of the greatest writers of fiction in English, his third language.