在所有那些对新世纪的到来评头论足的作家当中,没有一个能比约瑟夫·康拉德(1857—1924)更为显赫。约瑟夫·康拉德是一个波兰孤儿,他怀着对大海深沉的爱,当了(?)十一年的远洋者,后来,他转入英国国籍,并且当上了一个商船的船长。1894年,康拉德结束了漂流生活,在陆上定居下来。他的最初的两部小说《奥尔迈耶的愚蠢》和《一个荒岛上的流浪者》有着相同的马来亚背景。但是,他的创作才能首先是通过作品《白水仙号上的黑家伙》(1897)尤其是《吉姆爷》(1900)的完成才得到了真正的体现。他的语言很容易接受,堪称是语言大师;他能够营造和驾驭独特的小说氛围,并且在不幸的人的关注和同情中溶入他对心理学的见解。在小说《吉姆爷》中,当满载着朝圣者的船眼看着就要沉下去的时候,吉姆勋爵本能地跳到了其他官员所乘的一艘小船上,而实际上他们的船被救下来,拖到了海港。吉姆是一个浪漫的理想主义者,他那成功的一跳正是他的失败所在;而他在危机中表现出的无能则是他突然脱离习惯标准的一种形式,也正是这种形式吸引了康拉德。懦弱的阴影一直笼罩着吉姆勋爵,使他感到压抑并且无可奈何,直至他的生命结束在最后的一次抵偿活动中。 None of the writers who comment on the arrival of the new century can be more prominent than Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). Joseph Conrad, a Polish orphan who had been a deep-seated love for the ocean for eleven years as a far-off, then transferred to British nationality and became a captain of a merchant ship. In 1894, Conrad ended rafting life and settled on land. His first two novels, The Stupid Ormeier, and The Wanderer on a Desert Island have the same Malayan background. However, his creative talents were first truly realized through the completion of his work “The Black Man on The White Narcissus” (1897), especially “Jim Lord” (1900). His language is readily accepted as a master of language; he is able to create and navigate a unique fictional atmosphere and incorporate his psychology insights into the unhappy concern and sympathy. In the novel “Lord Jim”, as the boat full of pilgrims watched and was about to sink, Lord Jim instinctively jumped onto a small boat that other officials had taken, and in fact their boat was rescued, Dragged to the harbor. Jim was a romantic idealist whose success was exactly where his failure was. His incompetence in the crisis was one of his sudden departure from customary norms and it was this form of attraction Conrad. The shadow of cowardice, clinging to Lord Jim, kept him depressed and helpless until his life ended in the final liquidation.