The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World
Written by Maya Jasanoff
Narrated by Laurel Lefkow
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
‘Enlightening, compassionate, superb’ John le Carré
A visionary life and times of Joseph Conrad, and of our global world, from one of the best historians writing today.
Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, the promise and peril of a technological and communications revolution: these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad at the dawn of the twentieth century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization as we recognize it today. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaysia to the Congo to the Caribbean, Conrad navigated an interconnected world, and captured it in a literary oeuvre of extraordinary depth. His life story delivers a history of globalization from the inside out, and reflects powerfully on the aspirations and challenges of the modern world.
Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, to Polish parents in the Russian Empire. At sixteen he left the landlocked heart of Europe to become a sailor, and for the next twenty years travelled the world’s oceans before settling permanently in London as an author. He saw the surging, competitive ‘new imperialism’ that planted a flag in almost every populated part of the globe. He got a close look, too, at the places ‘beyond the end of telegraph cables and mail-boat lines,’ and the hypocrisy of the west’s most cherished ideals.
In a compelling blend of history, biography and travelogue, Maya Jasanoff follows Conrad’s routes and the stories of his four greatest works: The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo. Genre-bending, intellectually thrilling and deeply humane, The Dawn Watch embarks on a spellbinding expedition into the dark heart of Conrad’s world – and through it to our own.
Maya Jasanoff
Maya Jasanoff is Coolidge Professor of history at Harvard University. In 2017 she won the Windham-Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction.
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Reviews for The Dawn Watch
53 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The author remarks that Virginia Wolfe referred to Conrad as a writer for boys and young men. While that is clearly an oversimplification it is certainy true that his books contain an element of travel and adventure quite appealing to young men. It was as an 18 year old that I really became fascinated with Conrad so I certainly fell into Virginia Wolfe’s insight.Now older than Conrad at the time of his death I found this book a great way to become more deeply acquainted with him. I learnied many things I had never suspected.The book is quite readable - whle I have become more fascinated with history as I have aged it is always great when the histories have the freshness of todays news.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have been waiting to read this book for a long time. It is just tremendous. Conrad anticipated so much of our current world, 'The Horror!' indeed. Jasanoff is a reliable narrator and tour guide through Conrad's world. I can't praise this work enough.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I learned a lot from this well researched and better written sort-of biography of Joseph Conrad. Jasanoff places Conrad's life in the context of his times, from Russian suppression of Polish nationalist movements to the machinations around building the Panama Canal to World War I. Where she can, she offers the historical and biographical contexts for Conrad's best know works, such as Nostromo and Lord Jim. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I learned a great deal. Best of all, I am rereading Conrad with a new perspective.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inspires one even to re-read Nostromo!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dawn Watch is een vlot geschreven kennismaking met Joseph Conrad, deels biografie, deels studie van enkele van zijn belangrijkste werken. Vooral het stuk over Conrad’s verblijf in Congo vond ik interessant, net als de bespreking van de uit de hand gelopen plot van Nostromo. Toch is dit boek niet helemaal mijn ding. De schrijfster benadert Conrad’s leven en werk vanuit een handvol moderne thema’s en concepten als terrorisme, globalisering, racisme en een doorgeslagen kapitalisme. Hoewel het aan de lezer wordt gelaten om conclusies te trekken, dat wel gelukkig, is het duidelijk waar ze naar op zoek is: de raakpunten tussen Conrad’s tijd en de onze en wat wij daaruit kunnen leren. Deze vorm van assimilatie van een schrijver uit een andere tijd spreekt mij niet aan. Eén van de redenen waarom oude schrijvers blijven boeien, is juist door wat in hun werk niet gelijkvormig is aan ons, in Conrad’s geval bijvoorbeeld het fascinerende venster dat hij biedt op het leven in het tijdperk van de zeilschepen. Het is daarom, naast zijn idiosyncratisch proza en zijn visie op menselijk functioneren in extreme situaties, dat ik hem blijf lezen. Niet omdat hij een quasi-tijdgenoot zou zijn met nuttige lessen over een aantal van de hete hangijzers van onze tijd.