Introduction

The Introduction describes Conrad’s “indefinable timeless alchemy,” his works “continu[ing] to be seen, read, felt along the blood of later novelists and playwrights.” The purpose of Intimations is outlined: Conrad’s reception by, and influence on, authors of literary fiction which resonates explicitly or implicitly with a Conradian presence, passim or ambient. It shows the provenances of the “sightings” described in the chapters to follow, many in Joseph Conrad Today, the Joseph Conrad Society of America’s newsletter, edited by Mark D. Larabee. A foretaste of these sightings of Conrad, and a couple by him—Molière and Matthew Arnold—are mentioned, all “ambient Intimations” of Conrad’s presence in the fiction and social commentary of novels and film by significant authors who carry his legacy, from contemporaries such as H.G. Wells, Lytton Strachey, Ford Madox Ford, Violet Hunt and Scott Fitzgerald, to the moderns of a world canon: Albert Camus, John Le Carré, Ian McEwan, John Banfield, W.G. Sebald, Salman Rushdie, Adam Hochschild, John Le Carré, Jan Morris, Azar Nafisi, Sven Lindqvist, Maurice Wilson, and many more. Such sightings are valuable as referents. Thus, by looking back from them through time we may ascertain Conrad’s position on the chart of world literature.