Oxford Reader's Companion to Conrad

by Owen Knowles (Editor), Gene M. Moore (Editor)

Overview

Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski (as he was born in 1857) is one of the most compelling and complex figures in English literature. His own life was as astonishing as any of his novels: born in the Ukraine of Polish parents, after a childhood in exile and a 20-year career as a merchant seaman, he began in middle age to write in English, the language of his newly adopted country.
The Oxford Reader's Companion to Conrad represents a unique and long-overdue achievement in Conrad scholarship: the first comprehensive and authoritative reference to distil in a lively, readable way a vast range of information on Joseph Conrad's life, works, reputation, and the historical and cultural contexts in which he lived. Much of the material in the Companion is entirely new, compiled from scattered Conrad resources, many of which have never been published before.
Produced by two of the world's leading Conradians, with the help of specialist contributors, here are the latest findings of modern scholarship captured in an unparalleled resource for all Conrad enthusiasts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198604211
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/25/2002
Series:	Reader's Companion Series
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	8.05(w) x 5.07(h) x 1.25(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Contents
List of Maps
List of Authors and Contributors
Classified Contents List
Abbreviations
A Note to the Reader
Conrad Family Tree
Chronology
A-Z Entries
Maps
Frequently Cited Texts
Index of References to Conrad's Works

Editorial Reviews

"It is difficult to imagine a better single-author reference book for students than this jam-packed, authoritative work about Conrad."—Choice

From the Publisher

These additions to the "Reader's Companion" series (following those on Dickens and Trollope) address the need for one-volume encyclopedic surveys of these two master novelists. Although each book uses a basic A-Z format, there are differences as well. The Joseph Conrad reference is concerned with seven broad areas: biography, places associated with the life and writings, literary life, reputation, the works, influences and sources, and historical and cultural contexts. The heading "Conrad, Joseph" in the body of the book refers the reader to a chronology of Conrad's life. Each novel is treated in one long, undivided essay, and individual characters are discussed in detail, as are various critical approaches to the writer. A number of entries end with brief bibliographical paragraphs. Knowles (English, Univ. of Hull, England) and Moore (English, Univ. of Amsterdam) worked with four other contributors. The Thomas Hardy companion is also concerned with seven broad areas: the works, people, places, contexts, publishing, criticism and scholarship, and miscellaneous topics. Both a biography and a chronology are included. Long discussions of the novels are divided into sections (e.g., composition, illustrations, plot, reception, and critical approaches), while the essays on the poetry collections are not. The characters are not discussed individually, and there is one "critical approaches" entry rather than single references to each theory. Many entries end with bibliographies of one or more critical studies, and a good-sized bibliography is included, as are a number of useful appendixes (index of the poems, characters in the fiction, place-names, glossary of dialect words, and Hardy'sworks in the cinema, radio, and television). Page (English, Univ. of Nottingham. emeritus) worked with 42 contributors. Both works are lively and thorough, and both are highly recommended for upper division academic library collections as well as larger public libraries. (Illustrations not seen.)--Morris Hounion, New York City Technical Coll. Lib., Brooklyn Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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