A Conrad Chronology

Abstract

(3 Dec) Józef Teodor Konrad Nałęcz Korzeniowski is born in Berdichev in western Ukraine, a part of Poland annexed by Russia since 1795. He is the only child of Apollo Korzeniowski, a writer, translator and Polish patriot (born 1820) and Ewa (née Bobrowska, born 1832), who were married on 4 May 1856. Both parents are members of the landowning or szlachta class, although from families markedly different in their traditions and commitments. The politically active Korzeniowskis espouse soldierly and chivalric qualities, fervently upholding the tradition of patriotic action against Russia in the name of national independence, democratic reform and the birth of a ‘young Poland’. In the view of Tadeusz Bobrowski, Ewa’s brother and chief spokesman for the family, the Bobrowskis traditionally affirm the tenets of enlightened conservatism, trusting to ‘realistic’ political adjustment and conciliation as a means to eventual Polish autonomy; no less patriotic than Apollo in his view, Bobrowski asserts the need ‘to make a sober assessment of our position, to abandon our traditional dreams, to draw up a programme of national aims for many years to come, and above all, to work hard, to persevere, and to observe a strict social discipline’ (CUFE, p. 36). These varied inheritances come together in the three forenames chosen for JC, the first two derived from his grandfathers and the third (Konrad) from the name of the hero and Romantic patriot in Adam Mickiewicz’s poetic drama Dziady [‘Forefathers’ Eve’] (1823).