The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad In A Global World

A visionary life and times of Joseph Conrad and of our global world from one of the best historians writing today Enlightening compassionate superb' John le Carre The Dawn Watch will win prizes If it doesn't there is something wrong with the prizes' Guardian Migration terrorism the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism the promise and peril of a technological and communications revolution these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad at the dawn of the twentieth century In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization as we recognize it today As an immigrant from Poland to England and in travels from Malaysia to the Congo to the Caribbean Conrad navigated an interconnected
world and captured it in a literary oeuvre of extraordinary depth His life story delivers a history of globalization from the inside out and reflects powerfully on the aspirations and challenges of the modern world Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857 to Polish parents in the Russian Empire At sixteen he left the landlocked heart of Europe to become a sailor and for the next twenty years travelled the world's oceans before settling permanently in London as an author He saw the surging competitive new imperialism' that planted a flag in almost every populated part of the globe He got a close look too at the places beyond the end of telegraph cables and mail-boat lines' and the hypocrisy of the west's most cherished ideals In a compelling blend of history biography
and travelogue Maya Jasanoff follows Conrad's routes and the stories of his four greatest works The Secret Agent Lord Jim Heart of Darkness and Nostromo Genre-bending intellectually thrilling and deeply humane The Dawn Watch embarks on a spellbinding expedition into the dark heart of Conrad's world - and through it to our own