Joseph Conrad, b. Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857 – 1924•Born under Russian Rule•Son of an anti-Imperialist who dies in exile•Went to sea at 18•Eventually joined the British Merchant Marines and naturalized English•Events of HoD based on his experiences in the Belgian Congo•Published his first novel in 1895•English was his third, maybe fourth language! •Moved in literary circles with H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy, and Ford Madox Ford. •Main proponent of Flaubertian stylistics in English

Belgian’s King Leopold II•1879, Started the “Association internationale du Congo” or AIC, a personal corporation (v. state run) nominally for study and uplift but in actuality as a profit driven operation based on rubber and ivory. •In effect practiced slavery, forced labor, and genocide while claiming to outlaw such. • unknown millions died• Resulted in worldwide outrage, and became the first (and biggest) condemnation of Imperialism of the early 20th century [HoD =1899]

In contrast to the Europeans, for Marlowe the Africans “wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to look at. For a time I would feel that I still belonged to world of straightforward facts; but the feeling wouldn’t last long.” p 1899

The “Preface”•Literature should “carry its justification in every line”•Art, unlike science, doesn’t appeal to logic but to something more profound and intangible – that which “binds men to each other.” •This appeal must speak to our senses (rather than be pedantic or preachy or appeal to logic), like painting or music (according to Pater), and above all “make you see.”

Impressionism•Attempted to represent reality by defying line and structure in favor of color, light, and effect. •Compare with “light of magic suggestiveness” of Conrad’s prose • see p.891, description of sunset

“a haze rested on the on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and further back still seemed to condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.” p 1891

The “Preface”•Literature should “carry its justification in every line”•Art, unlike science, doesn’t appeal to logic but to something more profound and intangible – that which “binds men to each other.” •This appeal must speak to our senses (rather than be pedantic or preachy or appeal to logic), like painting or music (according to Pater), and above all “make you see.”•It must blend “form and substance” in order to reinvigorate “old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of careless usage.” •Art / Literature awakens in man, via the representation of the struggle, pain, beauty of life, our shared humanity.

“Blending form and Substance…”P 1900: “At last we opened a reach. A rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others with iron roof, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A jetty projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare.”

Structure? Why is the narrative structured as it is (e.g. starts in London, Marlowe’s story heard/related)? What is the effect of this setting? What do we know about Marlowe?

Stylistics? How would you describe the style of the book? Is it purposefully difficult or straightforward? Why?

Tone? What is the tone? Why might this be important?

Genre? How would you characterize the novella? How do you think this was read at the time of its first publication? Does it conform to any other genres and if so, what are the characteristics or formulas?