Dec 26, 2009

Typhoon | Literary Precedents

Conrad's literary precedents for "Typhoon," as with most of his sea fiction, included the novels of Frederick Marryat and the sea fiction of James Fenimore Cooper. In fact, Conrad once published an essay in Outlook (June 4, 1898) praising the fiction of Cooper and Marryat, which he claimed were his favorite reading in boyhood and youth.

On the other hand, it seems unlikely that Conrad had much knowledge of Herman Melville's fiction at this time; but if he had, Melville was never a major influence. In fact, it is recorded in Zdzislaw Najder's Joseph Conrad: A...