Conrad and Language

Joseph Conrad was, famously, trilingual in Polish, French and English, and was also familiar with German, Russian, Dutch and Malay. He was also a consummate stylist, using words with the precision of a poet in his fiction. The essays in this collection examine his engagement with specific lexical sets and terminology – maritime language, the language of terror, and abstract language; issues of linguistic communication – speech, hearing, and writing; and his relationship to specific languages – his deployment of foreign languages, his decision to write in English, and his reception through translation. The collection closes with an Afterword by renowned Conrad scholar, Laurence Davies.