Joseph Conrad and the Arts of His Time - by Robert Hampson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Addresses the changing geographical and historical background to Conrad's life as a source for his developing artistic vision.

Book Synopsis

This volume is the product of new research on Conrad's engagement with the arts during his lifetime. Beginning with nineteenth-century Polish landscape painting and Polish theatre, the essays move through music and the performing arts during Conrad's time in Marseilles; the opera Conrad encountered in Australia; and Conrad's later-life knowledge of recent and contemporary classical music. Subsequent essays demonstrate his familiarity with contemporary visual art (particularly through his friendships with various artists in London); his interest in dance; and his active involvement in contemporary theatre and screen-writing. The volume concludes with a discussion of Conrad's art as a novelist and playwright, his 'theatrical imagination', in relation to developments in theatre theory of the time.

Review Quotes

This collection reveals Conrad as a writer both conversant with and integrating an astonishing array of art forms in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including music, opera, theatre, painting and dance. It is indispensable not only for Conrad scholars interested in the fullest picture of his immersion in the arts, but also for any student of culture seeking a case study of the striking interrelation of the arts in this period.-- "Debra Romanick Baldwin Professor of English, University of Dallas Past President, Joseph Conrad Society of America"