Joseph Conrad

The question of language is inescapable in any discussion of the works of Joseph Conrad. Conrad did not speak English until he was 20. English was his third language, after Polish, his native tongue, and French. It was from seafarers that Conrad first learned English. Sailor talk was more essential to Conrad and his use of it far more complex and nuanced than has previously been acknowledged. For Conrad, the technical language of sailors—“the very terms of our sea-speech”—is an instance of perfection. He has aestheticized a language that seems the very opposite of beautiful. Yet it is not only in nonfiction works such as The Mirror of the Sea and Conrad’s late essays, “Notice to Mariners” (1922) and “Geography and Some Explorers” (1924), that he uses sea language. It permeates his fiction. Despite the formative effect of his maritime experience and use of sailor language, Conrad often lashed out against the confinement and restriction of being identified only as a writer of sea stories. Much as the label irritated him, however, the language never did. It imbues his storytelling.