J. H. Stape – författare

This compact novel, completed in 1900, as with so many of the great novels of the time, is at its baseline a book of the sea. An English boy in a simple town has dreams bigger than the outdoors and embarks at an early age into the sailor's life. The waters he travels reward him with the ability to explore the human spirit, while Joseph Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero.

In these four stories, written between 1900 and 1902, Joseph Conrad bid gradual farewell to his adventurous life at sea and began to confront the more daunting complexities of life on land in the twentieth century. In 'Typhoon' Conrad reveals, in the steadfast courage of an undemonstrative captain and the imaginative readiness of his young first mate, the differences between instinct and intelligence in a partnership vital to human survival. 'Falk', the companion sea-story, contrasts, as Conrad once put it, 'common sentimentalism with the frank standpoint of a more or less primitive man', a man with a conscience, however, about the girl he desires. In one of the 'land-stories' Conrad explores the utter isolation of an East European emigrant in England; in the other, the plight of a woman ironically trapped by the unwitting alliance of two retired widowers - each blind in his own way.

'It was I who removed de P- this morning.' With these chilling words Victor Haldin shatters the solitary, industrious existence of Razumov, his fellow student at St Petersburg University. Razumov aims to overcome the denial of his noble birth by a brilliant career in the tsarist bureaucracy created by Peter the Great. But in pre-revolutionary Russia Peter's legacy is autocracy tempered by assassination; and Razumov is soon caught in a tragic web with Haldin's trustful sister Natalia in spy-haunted Geneva. Their fateful story is told by an elderly Englishman who loves Natalia but plays his part of a 'dense Westerner' to the end.

This volume of interviews and recollections offers a kaleidoscopic view of E.M. Forster's character as observed and remembered by college associates, close friends, chance acquaintances and fellow writers. These forty-six pieces, some published here for the first time, variously reveal facets of his private and public personalities: Forster the subtle analyst of middle-class England, the spokesman for liberal causes and humane values, the Cambridge insider and the committed friend.

Bringing together work composed from 1890 to 1924, the nineteen pieces collected in the posthumously published Last Essays (1926) serve as a primer to Conrad's wide interests and to the varieties of his style. This edition, supported by an extensive textual apparatus, brings together various prose pieces, including reminiscences, reviews, essays on the sea and politics, as well as several miscellaneous items, including his 'Congo Diary' and the other notebook he kept in Africa in 1890. The introduction situates these writings in Conrad's career, offers new perspectives on Conrad in the marketplace and as a writer of occasional prose and traces the contemporary reception of the volume. The notes explain literary and historical references, identify real-life places and indicate Conrad's main sources. Early drafts and notes for several essays are published here for the first time, making this authoritative critical edition a major contribution to Conrad studies.

The twenty-six essays collected in Notes on Life and Letters (first published 1921) offer a kaleidoscopic view of Joseph Conrad's literary views and interest in the events of his day, including the Titanic disaster, First World War, and the re-emergence of his native Poland as a nation state. The introduction gives the history of the gathering of these diverse pieces into a single volume, traces the book's reception, and offers new perspectives on its relationship to Conrad's other writings. His essays underwent multiple layers of unauthorized intervention by typists, compositors and editors: this history is set out in the essay on the text and in the apparatus. The notes explain literary and historical references, identify places mentioned, and gloss foreign terms. Two maps supplement the explanatory material. This edition, first published in 2004 and established through modern textual scholarship, presents Conrad's essays and reviews in an authoritative form.

This penultimate volume of Conrad's collected letters ends soon after his 65th birthday. Over the previous three years, Conrad wrote The Rover, struggled with Suspense, translated The Book of Job (a Polish comedy), collaborated with J. B. Pinker on a cinematic treatment of 'Gaspar Ruiz', and worked by himself on adapting The Secret Agent for the London stage. He saw the publication of The Rescue, Notes on Life and Letters, and the Doubleday/Heinemann collected edition, most of whose volumes had new Author's Notes. Especially in North America, the collected edition strengthened his reputation as the leading English-language novelist of his day. This recognition could not always console him for his worries about his health, his family, and the state of post-war Europe, but he had not lost his sense of irony. These letters, the majority new to scholarship, abound in striking turns of phrase and unexpected insights.

Since its first appearance in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1899 and 1900, Lord Jim (1900) has been acclaimed as a modernist masterwork. Its narrative innovations and psychological complexity make it one of the most influential fictions written in the twentieth century and it has challenged and stimulated generations of readers as well as writers on and of fiction. This edition, established through modern textual scholarship, presents Conrad's novel and its preface in a form more authoritative than any so far printed. The Introduction situates the novel in Conrad's career and traces its sources and contemporary reception. The explanatory notes identify literary and historical references and real-life places and indicate Conrad's main influences. Glossaries, maps and illustrations are provided for further context, as well as a new transcription of 'Tuan Jim: A Sketch', a partial draft of the novel, and appearing in print for the first time, Conrad's contract for the book.

Serialized in Ford Madox Ford's English Review in 1908-9, A Personal Record (1912) both documents and fictionalizes Conrad's early life and the opening stages of his careers as a writer and as a seaman. It is also an artistic and political manifesto. This volume provides the most accurate and scholarly edition available. Mistakes introduced by typists and earlier publishers have been corrected to present the text as Conrad intended it. The introduction traces Conrad's sources and gives the history of writing and reception. The essay on the text and the apparatus set out the textual history. The notes explain literary and historical references, identify places, and gloss foreign terms. Four maps and a genealogical table supplement this explanatory material. This edition of A Personal Record, established through modern textual scholarship, presents Conrad's reminiscences and the volume's two prefaces in forms more authoritative than any so far printed.

The last volume in The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad presents over two hundred new letters written between 1892 and 1923. Some are to correspondents who have not previously appeared in the collected letters; others are to family members, friends, and colleagues familiar from earlier volumes. Many of the letters in both categories are substantial enough to justify a recharting of Conrad's work, his friendships, his experiences, and his opinions on such subjects as opera, marriage, editorial tampering, the reading public, British foreign policy, the consolations and the penalties of faith, the Dutch Empire, translating Maupassant, the power of oratory, the revolutions of 1917, and the deficiencies of Ibsen's Ghosts. This volume holds enough surprises to suggest that there can never be a final word on Conrad and includes indexes and further apparatus for the whole series.

The five stories brought together in Tales of Unrest (1898) mark a turning point in the writer's career. Conrad's first short story collection evidences a writer firmly in control of his new craft staking a claim to diverse cultural and fictional territories. The introduction situates the writing of these stories in Conrad's career and discusses their sources and contemporary reception. The explanatory notes identify literary and historical references and real-life places, and indicate influences. Two maps and six illustrations enrich the explanatory matter. The essay on the text lays out the history of the work's composition and publication, details interventions by Conrad's typists, compositors and editors, and explains editorial policy. This edition, established through modern textual scholarship, presents Conrad's stories and his preface to the collection in forms more authoritative than any so far printed.

Joseph Conrad's short novel The Shadow-Line: A Confession (1917) is one of the key works of early twentieth-century fiction. This edition, established through modern textual scholarship, and published as part of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad, presents Conrad's only major work written during the First World War and its 1920 preface in forms more authoritative than any so far printed. Correspondence reveals that the part- and chapter-divisions present in the historical editions lack authorial sanction, and this edition of The Shadow-Line offers a continuous text for the first time, restoring to the narrative a fluency and dramatic intensity not hitherto found in any printing. An Introduction and Explanatory Notes, as well as maps and illustrations, enrich this volume. The Appendices publish materials relevant to Conrad's maritime career and to the publishing of the American serial, and the Apparatus allows the reader to follow the creative process.

Joseph Conrad's centrality to modern literature is well established. The New Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad provides essential guidance to varied developments in the field of Conrad studies since the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad (1996). The volume's thirteen chapters offer diverse perspectives on emergent areas of interest, including canon formation, postcolonialism, gender, critical reception and adaptation. Likewise, chapters on Conrad's autobiographical writings, Heart of Darkness and 'The Secret Sharer', consider recent trends in both literary and cultural studies. A chronology and an updated guide to further reading serve to provide essential orientation to a large and complex field. This volume is the ideal starting point for students new to Conrad's work as well as for scholars wishing to keep abreast of current issues.

Published in 1915, Victory: An Island Tale holds a special place in Conrad's later writings as a bold experiment in genre. The novel variously draws upon realism, allegory and melodrama to explore large themes: commitment and solidarity, the individual's relationship to society and the power of love. The Introduction situates the novel in Conrad's career and traces its sources and contemporary reception. The essay on the text and the apparatus lay out the history of the work's composition and publication, and detail the extensive interventions by Conrad's typists, compositors and editors. Also included are notes explaining literary and historical references, a glossary of nautical terms, illustrations including pictures of early drafts, and appendixes. Established through modern textual scholarship, this edition of Victory presents the novel in a form more authoritative than any so far printed, and restores a text that has circulated in highly defective forms since its original publication.

Set in the South of France during the waning days of the French Revolution and the early years of Napoleonic rule, The Rover (1923) is the last novel that Conrad completed in his lifetime. A popular success on its publication, it explores, against the backdrop of dramatic political change and the Anglo-French hostilities leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar, the themes of personal and national identity, loyalty and love. The 'Introduction' situates the novel in Conrad's career and traces its sources and contemporary reception. Explanatory notes illuminate literary and historical references and indicate Conrad's sources. The essay on the text and the apparatus lay out the history of the work's composition and publication, detail the interventions in the text by Conrad's typists, compositors and editors and explain editorial policy. This edition of The Rover, established through modern textual scholarship, presents the novel in a form more authoritative than any so far printed.

Joseph Conrad's centrality to modern literature is well established. The New Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad provides essential guidance to varied developments in the field of Conrad studies since the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad (1996). The volume's thirteen chapters offer diverse perspectives on emergent areas of interest, including canon formation, postcolonialism, gender, critical reception and adaptation. Likewise, chapters on Conrad's autobiographical writings, Heart of Darkness and 'The Secret Sharer', consider recent trends in both literary and cultural studies. A chronology and an updated guide to further reading serve to provide essential orientation to a large and complex field. This volume is the ideal starting point for students new to Conrad's work as well as for scholars wishing to keep abreast of current issues.