Pent Farm Photo: Borys Conrad Conrad's residence from 1898 to 1907
It would be unfair to assess Joseph Conrad and his work "Heart of Darkness" without venturing to look at the surrounding events and ideas that shaped his life during this period. Many outside cultural influences as well as personal insights can give more value to understanding Conrad. This being stated, a look at events and happenings leading up to Conrad's writing of the "Heart of Darkness", and ultimately, his later success and a novelist, is in order.
The Victorian Era was a period of time ruled by Queen Victoria lasting from 1837 to 1901. It was a time typically characterized by prudishness and a overbearing sense of conventiality. It was a time of sweeping moral and social change. It was also a time when wealth, power and cultural identity and expression exploded. Ironically, it was in the Victorian Era that the first legitimized movements which doubted and questioned the Christian religion were able to find a voice. Science as a profession was, for the first time,widely accepted. Finding the reason for man's existence through logic and scientific laws was no longer considered blasphemous. There was more emphasis being placed on man's interaction and involvement in guiding his own fate. The Christian ethic of blind faith was now restructured to include an emphasis on self insight and moral responsibility. The rise of personal wealth in Europe during this time created for the first time a middle class. The existence of a middle class left more free time and more money for many people. For the first time ever, many people had leisure time. Leisure time was not to be wasted. It was to be used to pursue meaningful activities. Reading was deemed a meaningful activity , andthus, magazines such as Blackwood's, which would later publish "Heart of Darkness", were granted much popularity. Blackwood's would eventually prove invaluable to Joseph Conrad's writing career.
Conrad was undoubtedly fascinated with exploration throughout his life. Europe throughout the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century was also consumed by a fascination with the exploration of Africa. Until the early 1800's, Europe used Africa solely for slave trade and labor. Only the exterior parameters of Africa were known and documented. The African interior was still unexplored. European interest in African exploration truly began with the push to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire. By 1833 The Abolition of Slavery Act outlawed all aspects of slavery and was the first solid step to a slave-free new world. Many missionary and philanthropic societies wished to further the understanding of the African Continent and it's peoples. In the late 1700's, Mungo Park was one of the first explorers to achieve notoriety by leading an expedition which would discover the Niger and, in a later expedition, unsuccessfully try to find it's source. Throughout the Nineteenth Century,European explorers would successfully explore the whole continent of Africa.
Two of the most famous explorers were David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley. David Livingstone would endear himself to European society as an explorer and missionary who spent twenty years in his expeditions. He spread Christianity and lived in harmony with the African peoples. Livingstone would pursue his false theory that the Nile originated in largely unknown waters farther south than Lake Victoria until his death. Livingstone became a media curiosity when his falsely reported death created interest in finding the truth about his existence in Africa. Henry Stanley was a journalist who was hired to make an expedition to find or "rescue" Livingstone if necessary. Henry Stanley would capture the worlds attention by finding Livingstone and later exploring the Congo river. Stanley would also usher in an era which ended the philanthropic exploration of Africa. Stanley would be one of the first explorers to use weapons and force to overpower the Africans and further his cause at any cost. Stanley's completion as the first explorer to cross the African continent from the Indian to the African Ocean propelled him to celebrity status. It also completed most of the exploration of Africa and afforded Europeans the opportunity to concentrate on economic uses for,andthe colonization of,Africa.
The scramble for European control of Africa was immediate and fierce. In 1884-1885, European governments met in at a conference in Berlin, germany to decide how to divvy up Africa. This took place without the consent or inclusion of any African people. King LeopoldII would prove to be the greatest benefactor of riches and wealth by wrestling control of the whole Congo region. It was originally to be divided with France. LeopoldII proved to be a ruthless ruler who exploited the raw minerals and Ivory form the African people with brutal force. He was Sovereign-King of the Congo Free State. He mad millions of dollars by explointin and monopolizing the ivory and rubber trade in the Congo region. He made it illegal for the native people to sell any of these products for themselves. They were reduced to only gathering goods for LeopoldII and being exploited and abused. Leopold's reign would last for twenty years. Joseph Conrad was employed by the Societe Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo. He was captain of a steamboat named the Roi de Belges. He would spend less than a year in the African Congo and it would be a disillusioning trip. Conrad would witness the beginnings of Leopold's terror and atrocities. He would also contract malarial gout, which would affect him for the rest of his life. Conrad would use these experiences as the autobiographical base for "Heart of Darkness".
Conrad's personal life was complicated and by most accounts unfulfilling until around the time "Heart of Darkness" was published. He started to weary of life at sea as early as 1885. In 1894 two events would change the course of Conrad's life. His uncle, Thaddeus Bobrowski passed away, and his first novel was accepted for publishing. Conrad gave up the sea and embarked on a full time writing career. He married two years later and had no desire for children. In 1898, Conrad and his wife had their first child,Borys, despite Joseph's misgivings. This would mark a very unstable period in Conrad's life. He had great debts and no longer had the security of his uncle to rely on for help. He was still basically unsuccessful (in popular terms) as a writer. He suffered from malarial gout and many times was in poor health. He was mentally unstable and would have periods where he was very productive and longer periods where he could get nothing accomplished. He was anxiety ridden and perhaps was, what would be called today, manic-depressive . He couldn't adjust to the guilt feelings he had for his debts yet couldn't reconcile to a life less priveleged. He felt contempt for commercial success. But there were good things that came about around this time. Conrad was living at Pent Farm and would be surrounded by many literary contemporaries. He would meet and become friends with Ford Madox Ford, Cunningham Greene, Stephen Crane, H.G. Wells, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw. At the same time Conrad established a long lasting and productive relationship with Blackwood's magazine. William Blackwood, editor and publisher, provided Conrad with a tremendous morale boost by believing in his works and being eager to represent them. This morale boost coupled with the respect of his contemporaries was welcomed and needed by Conrad. In 1902, "Heart of Darkness" was published in Blackwood's and would begin a period of artistic fulfillment and greatness for Joseph Conrad.
Many things collectively helped to shape Joseph Conrad. Prevailing attitudes, social mores, personality and family all meld together to shape and form ideas and actions in all men. Yet for Joseph Conrad, his collective experiences produced what many consider to be the best English stylist ever to write.