Biographical criticism and source studies

Abstract

Much literary criticism has been based on the notion of the work as access to the author’s intention. Conrad’s HD derives from his experiences in the Congo. We know about this from a diary of his journey, from letters about his experience, from comments by the author about his story, HD, and its genesis, either on its first publication or years later on the publication of a newer edition [see Kimbrough, pp. 77–235]. Our access to the author’s intentions ranges from his own comments to those of his closest associates and contemporaries. Extracts from the comments and recollections of G. Jean-Aubry, Edward Garnett, Richard Curie, R. Cunninghame Graham, Stephen Crane, and Ford Madox Ford are available in critical editions, collections of essays, and biographies. If we accept Guerard’s [1958] claim that, ‘since technique is temperament and style the man’ then intimate details about Conrad’s life should be indispensable to our understanding of HD.

Every novel contains an element of autobiography (Conrad)

[see Kimbrough, 1988, p. 235]