One Day More

by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad, born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, (1857-1924) was a Polish-born novelist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He is regarded as one of the greatest English novelists, which is even more notable because he did not learn to speak English well until he was in his 20s. He is recognized as a master prose stylist. Some of his works have a strain of romanticism, but more importantly he is recognized as an important forerunner of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many writers, including Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence and Graham Greene. Writing during the apogee of the British Empire, Conrad drew upon his experiences in the British Merchant Navy to create novels and short stories that reflected aspects of a world-wide empire while also plumbing the depths of the human soul. Amongst his best known works are Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Under Western Eyes (1911), Victory (1915) and The Rescue (1920).

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Classics, Drama

52 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

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

[Chanel Earl]

This play has some low reviews, but I actually thought it was worth reading. The main tension of the play seems to me to be about the difference between staying where we are comfortable or seeing reality anew and forcing ourselves to change. That is an important tension to consider and ponder, and the play is short and easy to read. It doesn't require too much from us.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written, and generally a bunch of nonsense.

[Inga · Rating 4 out of 5]

My god, what a nightmare, hashtag Free Bessie.

[Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Conrad based this play on his short story "Tomorrow."
It is a poetic piece. While, in a strict sense, it is realistic, it has the tone of a dream.
The premise, in fact, anticipates WAITING FOR GODOT. Obviously, Beckett's work is stark to the core, but ONE DAY MORE features people waiting, waiting in a desolate region for someone's return. With a line like "There is no tomorrow!" this play points to the isolation of the soul.
It is of its time (1905.)
Conrad usually wrote novels and stories, and these works were usually about men in an environment of arduous struggle, physical or psychological; usually both. "One Day More" is quite rare in Conrad's oeuvre in that it is about a woman. It is about a woman dealing with a world dictated by the tension between three men: Her father, his neighbor and the neighbor's long-lost son. When the son returns, the woman must try to deal with a crisis men have created.
The short story appeared two years before the play, so Conrad's adaptation, done at the height of his powers, is not the work of an author trying to capture past glory. While I have not read the story, I have read five or six of Conrad's novels. They are works about inner turmoil. I would say this play would need a very capable team. Its strengths are not in the story points but in the struggle of the protagonist as she deals with the cruel situation she finds herself in.

[Hossein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite his novels, it seems to me, Conrad lacks sense of drama. the only interesting in the play for me was the theme of it(waiting for vague tomorrow),although it was expressed too nakedly... compare it to Waiting for Godot. this might be seemed naked because of the time passage; maybe it's better to put the play in the context of the time (early 20th) it was written.

[Rama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repression amidst madness and duty-centric control as a backdrop to impotent but loud desperation…

[Hayley Shaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this play in one act. This paly is about a man that waits always one day more until his son comes home. He has been advertising in the paper where he lives and a reward for whoever brings his son to him. He has plans- about the wife his son will have and about where he will live, that is, when he comes home. Will he finally see the world for what it really is or will he miss his chance at peace?

[Asha Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eccentric Captain Hagberd has been waiting for years for his son to come home from the sea. He has scrimped and saved, outfitting a house for Harry to inherit upon his return, which will be in only "one day more." He has also planned that Harry will marry Bessie, the repressed maiden next door.

Not the best of Conrad literature!

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some eccentric and endearing characters familiar to anyone who has lived with aging parents or grandparents.