The most significant events in the history of books on the 3rd of December
1857: Joseph Conrad is born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Russian-occupied Poland. He would become fluent in several languages, including Polish, Russian, French, and English – and it would be in the last of these that he would write his classic novels, the best of which we have discussed here. Although his work did receive some encouraging reviews in the press, it was not until 1914 – when much of his best work was behind him – that Conrad would achieve commercial success for the first time, with his romantic novel Chance.