
He wrote his best-known works in the years just before and after the turn of the century: Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), and Nostromo (1904). He quickly won critical praise, though financial success eluded him for many years and both he and his wife suffered serious illnesses. After describing the river and its slow-moving traffic, the unnamed narrator offers short descriptions of Londons history to his companions who, with him, lazily lounge on the deck, waiting for the tide to turn. He published his first novel ( Almayer's Folly) in 1894. Heart of Darkness begins on board the Nellie, a small ship moored on the Thames River in London. For the next eight years, Conrad continued to work as a sailor (even spending time commanding a steamship in the Belgian Congo), and continued to write. It was about this time he changed his name to the more British-sounding Joseph Conrad and published his first short stories (he wrote in English, his third language after Polish and French). The Online Books Page has an FAQ which gives a summary of copyright durations for many other countries, as well as links to more official sources. Eventually, he began to sail on British ships, and became a British citizen in 1886, at the age of 29. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Heart of Darkness and what it means. At seventeen, he traveled to Marseilles and began to work as a sailor. A summary of Part 1, Section 2 in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness. Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was an orphan by the age of 12 his mother and father both died as a result of time the family spent in exile in Siberia for plotting against the Russian Tsar.
