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Article: The collected letters of Joseph Conrad, volume II: 1898-1902.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- April 10, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1987 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, Volume II: 1898-1902
edited by FrederickKarl and Laurence Davies (Cambridge, 483 pp., $44.50)
D. H. LAWRENCE criticized Conrad'spessimism, his belief that "in this world--as I have known it--we are made to suffer without the shadow of a reason, of a cause, or of a guilt.' When I asked a Polish scholar if he thought it true, as Conrad said in Heart of Darkness, that "We live, as we dream--alone,' he bitterly replied: "For Poles, it is true!' Conrad lamented that "the strain of national worry has weakened the moral fiber' of the Poles, and that his typically "ineradicable tendency to quarrel with fate' condemned him ...