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Korzeniowski, Jozef. See Conrad, Joseph

 

Fishburn and Hughes: The original Polish name of the writer Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), Under Western Eyes (1911) and many other novels. In 1886 Conrad qualified as a master mariner and acquired British citizenship. After sailing the seas for many years he settled in England and began to write in English, basing much of his fiction on his early sea experiences. Borges comments on Conrad's ability to perceive and project the 'poetic' quality of everyday life (Other Inq. 43), a quality he perceives also in Henry James. The story 'Guayaquil' seems to include several references to Nostromo, which is set in the province of Sulaco in a fictional South American country called Costaguana. The terms 'melancholy and pompous' with which Borges alludes to the first paragraph of his story probably reflect his view of Conrad's language, which he describes as introducing to English an epic and ceremonial ring 'proper to French prose'. See José Avellanos, Estado Occidental, Golfo Plácido, Higuerota, Sulaco. Guayaquil