A Preface to Conrad: Second Edition

by Watts,Cedric, M.A. Ph.D. (Prof

• ISBN13: 9780582437685
• ISBN10: 0582437687
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Widely recommended, this guide to Conrad offers a vivid and incisive account of his life and literary career, and gives detailed attention to the contexts, themes, problems and paradoxes of his works.

Author Biography

Cedric Watts is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and is an internationally recognized leading authority on the life and works of Joseph Conrad and has published several books on the subject.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps	vii
Foreword to the First Edition	ix
Acknowledgements and Editorial Notes	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
PART ONE: THE WRITER AND HIS SETTING
Chronological table	2	(5)
Biographical Background	7	(35)
The double man	7	(1)
Poland	8	(9)
Marseille	17	(3)
England and the Merchant Navy	20	(5)
The Congo and its aftermath	25	(3)
The second career: Conrad the novelist	28	(14)
Cultural Background	42	(69)
The tensions	42	(2)
Conrad's pessimism	44	(3)
Religious matters	47	(4)
Poland and Conrad's political outlook	51	(4)
Imperialism	55	(9)
Science and determinism	64	(1)
The Superfluous Man	65	(2)
The Hamlet/Don Quixote Dichotomy	67	(7)
Anti-rational primitivism	74	(5)
Determinism and solipsism	79	(3)
Darkness and the dying sun	82	(3)
Darwinism	85	(3)
Darwinism and psychology	88	(2)
Atavism and doubles	90	(3)
Evolution, Aestheticism and sex	93	(6)
Literary influences	99	(12)
PART TWO: THE ART OF CONRAD
Conrad On His Art	111	(3)
The Pressure Towards Paradox	114	(5)
The Convert Plot: Three Examples	119	(3)
Abdulla's defeat of Almayer in Almayer's Folly	119	(1)
The conspiracy against Kurtz in `Heart of Darkness'	119	(1)
The attempt to defraud the hero in The Shadow-Line	120	(2)
Textual Commentaries	122	(18)
The opening of Almayer's Folly (1895)	122	(2)
The ending of `An Outpost of Progress' (1897)	124	(2)
A passage from `Heart of Darkness' (1899)	126	(5)
Jim's jump: Lord Jim (1900)	131	(2)
The ending of `The Secret Sharer' (1910)	133	(2)
Two Conradian cruces	135	(5)
Nostromo	140	(36)
Genesis and production	140	(1)
Sources	140	(10)
Nostromo and the meanings of its techniques	150	(13)
Critical challenges	163	(6)
Chronology and topography	169	(7)
Heroes, Heroines, Gender And Feminism	176	(8)
Models of conduct	176	(2)
A type-list	178	(2)
Feminist criticisms of Conrad	180	(4)
Conrad's Place In Literary History	184	(27)
PART THREE: REFERENCE SECTION
A list of symbolic or allegoric names in Conrad's fiction	193	(5)
Gazetteer	198	(2)
Short biographies	200	(7)
Further reading	207	(4)
INDEXES	211	(1)
General Index	211	(6)
Index to Conrad's Works	217