The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad

March 1, 2008
Stape has edited several books on or by Joseph Conrad, best known for writing "Heart of Darkness"; here, he writes as a self-proclaimed "fourth generation" biographer, i.e., the first to have access to the entirety of Conrad's correspondence as well as the Internet. Despite the book's stated aim of brevity, it nonetheless manages to fit in numerous asides that illuminate the familial, cultural, and historical contexts in which Conrad lived. These observations help ground the author's life and literary works, both of which often elude Stape's analysis. Conrad was notorious for glossing over embarrassing facts and embellishing others in his memoirs and even in conversations with his friends. Stape offers that "compression and dramatic impact rather than strict adherence to the fact" were Conrad's primary aim, so he spends much of his time picking through what little evidence was left behind and debunking what he deems myths propagated by previous biographers. Exhaustively indexed and annotated, this book possesses an authoritativeness that recommends it to academic libraries and public libraries bringing their collections up to date.Megan Hodge, West End Branch of the Richmond P.L., VA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2008
One of the worlds most captivating writers, Conrad led a demanding life long obscured by myth. Conrad expert Stape seeks to nail down the facts in a strict accounting of the wrenching ups and downs of Conrads struggle to survive and get words on the page. Writing with an eye to irony and paradox and evincing a love of descriptionqualities prominent in Conrads workStape lays the foundation with a sensitive rendering of Conrads traumatic childhood as the only child of exiled Polish dissidents. A sickly boy versed in the art of displacement, he was orphaned at 11, went to sea at 16, and was marked by all that he witnessed in far-flung places, from the Caribbean to Bangkok, Borneo, and the Congo. As Stape vividly portrays this seen-it-all ardent Francophileand feckless charmer resistant to authority, Stape admits that Conrads metamorphosis into a writer remains an intractable mystery. He then keeps diligent track of Conrads punishing cycles of creativity and despair within a marriage further burdened by financial worries and relentless bouts of ill health. Stapes painstaking portrait clarifies many aspects of Conrads life, and reveals just how grueling it was for him to create his glorious and harrowing fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)