Submitted by jimbo, Mar 10, 2008 09:42

if mr. stape indeed "gives a full chronicle of Conrad's life from birth to death," he has done readers a service, and i think mr. kirsch's review is unnecessarily personal and demeaning in its criticisms. the book as a whole may be overly reliant on facts and too little concerned with interpretation, but the lines kirsch lays out for more discussion—the "crushing psychic burden" on Conrad from losing his parents or his "unconscious hope" to be trapped in Poland and "become a martyr like his father"—are the stuff of fiction, and no more likely to reveal the man than a pedantic recitation of what can be stated with certainty. if Conrad himself was unconscious of this hope, where could we find any evidence for it other than in the mind of an eager reviewer? psycho-analysis of the living is problematic enough without using its procedures to play tricks on the dead.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.