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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Joseph Conrad
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(the name adopted in England by Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857–1924) Novelist who became a master of English prose, though he first learnt the language in his twenties. Born an aristocrat in a part of Poland under Russian rule, he left home at 17 to go to sea. His adventures brought him eventually into the British merchant navy, and he was naturalized in 1886. His experiences around the world, particularly in the Far East and Africa, provided the settings for many of his novels and short stories, such as *Lord Jim and *Heart of Darkness; but the subject matter is not so much the exotic location as the self-awareness, often of a most depressing kind, which his central characters experience in these remote conditions. *Nostromo, often considered his masterpiece, is untypical in depicting a broader canvas of a society in upheaval.
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