The passing year is prominent on the 160th anniversary of the birth of the most Polish from the British and most British from Poland, but also the Ukrainian author. 2017th – the year of Joseph Conrad, one of the captains of classical literature. Joseph Konrad-Kozhenovsky was born in Berdychiv, where he has a modern multimedia museum devoted to the marine life and creativity of the artist. And in the fall of this year in Berdichev the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Joseph Conrad: Time, Space, Memory” was held. We decided to find the top 5 most interesting facts about the writer of the three cultures. However, they, such facts, turned out to be so much that we barely decided on the TOP-10
Fact № 1 The father of the future classics Apollo Kozhenovsky studied at the Zhytomyr Gymnasium.
Fact № 2 On the birthday of Conrad, December 3, 1857, his father rented a farm and served as a steward in the estates of wealthy friends and relatives. Hence – frequent transitions and contradictions in the data on the place of birth of the author. The village of Terekhov, Ivankivtsi Berdichev district and the city of Berdychiv claim the status of their native place.
Fact № 3 When Joseph was ill, he took his uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski, to his uncle, who subsequently took him to treatment in Odessa. The boy first saw the sea … What are the other countries, other lands? Subsequently, on the slopes of the summer, Joseph Conrad writes: “I was nine years old or so, and I, sitting on the map of Africa at that time, shook my finger in a white spot that concealed the undiscovered mystery of this continent, and said to myself with absolute with certainty and impressive hardness, which has long been in my character: – I will grow up and I will be here! “And I visited!
Fact № 4 According to contemporaries, parents called the son in the name Konrad – in honor of the hero of the poem Adam Mickiewicz “Dziady”.
Fact № 5 In the life of Joseph Conrad had to hear a lot of reproaches. In particular, the reproach of the fact that he, they say, renounced his homeland, gaining the fame of an English writer. Conrad replied to this reproof: “I honestly honored my homeland, gaining recognition and proving to the British that a nobleman from Ukraine … will find what to say in their language.”
Fact № 6 Staying in the soul of a Polish patriot, Conrad refused in 1924 to take the title of British lord. At the same time, the writer received the title of captain of the royal fleet.
Fact № 7 Conrad first began writing about international terrorism in Europe.
Fact № 8 In the 70 years of XX century. In the UK, the International Conrad Community Society was founded, and the Conradiana magazine was published in the United States.
Fact № 9 “A Man Who Was Just Born, Plunges into Dreams, As Immerse yourself in the Sea” (novel “Lord Jim”).
Fact № 10 A lot of screenwriting was created on the works of Joseph Conrad. For example, you can choose, for example, Gabrielle (director Patrice Schero), Lord Jim (director Richard Brooks), “Apocalypse Today” (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) or “Sabotage” (directed by Alfred Hitchcock).
Top 10 prepared by: Tamara Babiychuk, Lyudmila Zolotyuk
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
