Дзеркало моря. Особова справа

by Joseph Conrad, Джозеф Конрад, Андрій Бондар (Перекладач)

«Дзеркало моря» та «Особова справа» — збірки автобіографічних нарисів Джозефа Конрада. До «Дзеркала моря» увійшли тексти, присвячені морському періоду в житті письменника. Роздуми про мореплавство та розлогі описи вітрів та вод поєднуються з анекдотичними й драматичними епізодами та спостереженнями за людськими характерами. А наскрізний мотив — ностальгія за мореплавством епохи вітрил, яка відійшла в минуле. «Особова справа» звертається до польського дитинства письменника, зачіпає теми патріотизму й вірності та оповідає про перші кроки на шляху до британського флоту і до британської літератури. Обидва твори українською публікуються вперше.

Genres: Biography, Classics, Nonfiction, Literature, Autobiography, Memoir, Travel

472 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mostly bangs on about the sea, boats, wind, the sea, storms, rivers, the sea.... The second part is billed as Conrad's account of how he came to be a writer; there's a bit of that, but mostly he bangs on some more about the sea. Still, he writes the best sentences I've ever read, and is a lot funnier than he's generally given credit for. I'm going to get 2 more cats and call them Joseph and Conrad.

[Jean Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I didn't read the whole book, but snippets of it. One comment that struck me enough to copy it in my commonplace book:

"He who wants to persaude should put his truth not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense." -

I'd never heard this before, but immediately it struck me as true.

[Glenda Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books, as a friend said, that is so intense you find yourself stepping away to distill what you have read, then returning, eager again to read deeper. Conrad is mythic.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd forgotten how great a manipulator of language Conrad is...and to think it was his SECOND language! Dostoevsky->Conrad->Faulkner

[Bohdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Моє перше особисте знайомство з творчістю конрада, попри те, що багато читав про його життя і його роботи. Не зовсім типові для нього твори, що є філософським осмисленням його спогадів, а не художня література, завдяки якій він здобув свою відомість. Попри те це було дуже цікаво, хоч інколи є відчуття не надійності наратора.
Перш за все хотів би відмітити вступ, на 40 сторінок, це було дуже потужно, тільки заради цього книгу вже варто читати.
Дзеркало моря більш філософська робота, що переплетена спогадами і рефлексіями про минуле життя.
Особова справа, як на мене менш художня, що розкриває більше історичних деталей, частіше зв'язаних з родиною Конрада, що теж було цікаво читати.
Всім хто досі не знайомий з Конрадом варто звернути увагу, тим паче що він наш земляк, як мінімум за місцем народження.

[Ormond Sacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose gets a little purple in spots, but I enjoyed the sketches of 1900s sailing life and the occasional flashes of humor. The kind of book that makes one want to grab some good old rollicking sea stories, assuming one could ever find good old rollicking sea stories that talk about people and places with the enthusiasm that they talk about the foremast rigging.

[Al Maki]

Finished Mirror of the Sea, a collection of reminiscences of life at sea and thoughts on sailing. . Personal Record is a description of his life up until he went to sea. It ends with an evocative description of one of his first experiences on a boat, which I thought captures his love and fascination with being on the water.

[Douglas Bridger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough read. It’s two books. The Mirror of the Sea is Conrad explaining his fascination with the sea and is heavy with anthropomorphism which I found tiresome. And although I have always understood that ships can be seen to have characters he takes this to an altogether different level. He is generally recognised as a master of the English language but this was too often shown in paragraphs laden with adjectives. The occasional anecdotes were enjoyable.
The second book A Personal Record I just found disappointing. In fact I skipped through the last third of it.

[Brett Warnke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old giant's impressions and reflections upon the nooks and quiet moments of his life. Conrad' characters often brood, glide, ponder, plot, and pout. Even if the reminiscences are digressive, the scenes and people he describes--always with rich language--offer vivid portraits of his rural origins, the seascapes during his flight from Eastern Europe, his late start in literature and the political and personal events shaping a full life.

[Garry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awful. Disappointing. Boring. Sorry, not to my liking. I had especially high expectations, and they were not realized.

[Maryjane Nordgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

i loved the Mirror of the Sea; A Personal Record was a bit disjointed and hard to keep track of the line of thought

[Maddox Feldbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually hate autobiographical stuff but Conrad just chatting you up about the sea leads to such amazing shit so quickly it's ridiculous

[Stan Bebbington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of Conrad's books were included in this volume. The first, "Mirror of the Sea" was a set book I read and tried to dissect in 1945. As a 15 year old scientist the sea to me was just a large amount of H2O. I did not understand a word of it. For the uninitiated, Conrad was Polish, and it might as well have been written in his native language. I was reassured to see that a critic of the time suggested that it should have been translated from Conrad's Polish rather than he write it in English. I did do better 63 years after the first attempt. The problem is that the language is tortuous and elaborate with very long sentences. One can only admire his knowledge of but not his command of English. Essentially the story is of the sea and sailing ships and those two elements doing battle with each other over the whole milieu of water, from estuary, harbour and dock to the mighty oceans. There was a curious effect from trying to understand his prose; I found that the brain needed time to absorb and digest it before reaching the underlying sense of the piece. It was usually worth the effort.



The second book in the volume was, "A Personal Record". There was comment in the notes about this being about people and places around Conrad and not autobiographical in the strict sense. But the same effort is required to get the most out of his writing; again it is worth the effort. Six years elapsed between the two books which do complement each other. Conrad's deep love of the sea and the effort he has made to interest us in it is to be admired.

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing. A touch uneven, topic-wise, but hey, it's a collection of shorter pieces reshaped into a book. The good parts are amazing, and the not-so-good parts are still impressive. So what if the truth gets stretched?
The Mirror of the Sea (1906)
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Memoir (135 pp.)
1870s to 1900 (and 1805); London and the Sea (and Trafalgar)
Essays on seafaring life (and the genius of Lord Nelson) published between 1904 and 1906, collected in book form.

Semi-Random Semi-Representative Sample:
And yet sometimes one gets a hint of what the last scene may be like in the life of a ship and her crew, which resembles a drama in its struggle against a great force bearing it up, formless, ungraspable, chaotic and mysterious as fate.

Bookstore Cat Sample:
Faithful to no race after the manner of the kindly earth, receiving no impress from valour and toil and self-sacrifice, recognizing no finality of dominion, the sea has never adopted the cause of its masters like those lands where the victorious nations of mankind have taken root, rocking their cradles and setting up their gravestones.

Reminds me of: Other Conrad or Melville or Hughes; essentially it’s a (for Conrad) direct explanation of the symbolism of the Sea in Art.

[C Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hello


over last 35 years
have read the Mirror of the Sea
four or five times

each time
is still a pleasure

yours truly

[midnightfaerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of “A Personal Record”

Review of “The Mirror of the Sea”

[Ally Shand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the seafaring adventures that inspired so much of Conrad's fiction. Plenty of interesting musings on art and it's purpose in the world too.

[Scott]

I'm not going to rate this one since I gave up on it. I got a good 60+ pages into The Mirror of the Sea and realized that it just simply wasn't holding my attention.

I love the Conrad novels I've read - Lord Jim, Nostromo, Heart of Darkness, and others. These two books, though, are clearly for the person who wants to get into the mind of Conrad the real-life sailor. I have never done any sort of seafaring, and my interest in it is very casual. So when I read chapter after chapter about loading a ship, or the day-to-day operations of working a vessel, my mind went a bit numb.

This one is definitely for historians of Conrad's personal life and perhaps how his early life working ships influenced his later writing. And perhaps Conrad literature buffs would enjoy analyzing his style to how he wrote his fiction. For those of us looking for something a bit more escapist, we are better off looking to the man's fiction.