The Shadow Line - Joseph Conrad

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Résumé :
Only the young have such moments. I don't mean the very young. No. The very young have, properly speaking, no moments. It is the privilege of early youth to live in advance of its days in all the beautiful continuity of hope which knows no pauses and no introspection. One closes behind one the little gate of mere boyishness-and enters an enchanted garden. Its very shades glow with promise. Every turn of the path has its seduction. And it isn't because it is an undiscovered country. One knows well enough that all mankind had streamed that way. It is the charm of universal experience from which one expects an uncommon or personal sensation-a bit of one's own....

Biographie:
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist, considered as one of the prominent novelists to write in the English language. He was born on 3 December 1857. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he came to be considered a master prose stylist who guided a non-English sensibility into English literature. He was assigned British nationality in 1886 but always regarded himself a Pole. He enrolled in the French Merchant Marine and began to work on British ships, learning English from his shipmates. He was made a master mariner and worked more than sixteen years before an event motivated him to try his hand at writing. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that represents trials of the human spirit in the middle of an unexpressive, transparent universe. During his lifetime Conrad was praised for the assets of his prose and his offerings of dangerous life at sea and in foreign places. His works include the novels Almayer's Folly (1895), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907) and the short story 'Heart of Darkness ' (1902). He died in August 1924.

Sommaire:
Joseph Conrad, born J?zef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857 in present-day Ukraine, grew up in a politically active Polish family. His father, a writer and patriot, was imprisoned for anti-Russian activism, and Conrad's early years were marked by displacement and loss. Orphaned at age eleven, he was raised by his uncle, who encouraged his passion for the sea.Conrad began his maritime career in the French merchant navy before joining the British merchant fleet, where he spent nearly 20 years at sea. His experiences as a sailor provided the foundation for much of his writing, including Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. Although he did not learn English until his twenties, Conrad became a master of the language, creating works that explore themes of isolation, imperialism, and human nature.Conrad's fiction often reflects his personal struggles with identity, exile, and the human psyche. His unique perspective as a Polish expatriate writing in English contributed to his status as one of the most influential modernist writers of the 20th century. His works continue to be studied for their complex narrative techniques and moral ambiguity....