The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World
Written by Maya Jasanoff
Narrated by Laurel Lekfow
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
"Enlightening, compassionate, superb" —John Le Carré
A visionary exploration of the life and times of Joseph Conrad, his turbulent age of globalization and our own, from one of the most exciting young historians writing today
Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, and a communications revolution: these forces shaped Joseph Conrad's destiny 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 an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaya to 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 Józef 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 England 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 spell-binding 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.
Related to The Dawn Watch
Related audiobooks
Heart of Darkness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Joseph Conrad Collection: The Secret Agent and Heart Of Darkness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joseph Conrad: The Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nostromo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYouth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings3 Audiobooks Joseph Conrad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Odessa With Love: Political And Literary Essays from Post-Soviet Ukraine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gift Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under Western Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart of Darkness and A Personal Record (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiterary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thrilling Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales Of Unrest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Plenty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Odyssey: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadows of Ecstasy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales Of Unrest: The Original Manuscript Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack London: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dialogue with a Somnambulist: Stories, Essays & A Portrait Gallery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTyphoon and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Young Alexander: The Making of Alexander the Great Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heart of Darkness (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart of Darkness (version 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bloody Crown of Conan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Judderman: The Eden Book Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Kati Marton's The Great Escape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fahrenheit 451 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lord of the Flies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Feminist: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meet Me in the Margins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life of One's Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow": A Macat Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Dawn Watch
39 ratings5 reviews
- 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 stars5/5Inspires one even to re-read Nostromo!
- 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 stars5/5The 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: 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.