The Idiots - Joseph Conrad - 338 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Born in Polish Ukraine in 1857, Joseph Conrad was the son of patriotic parents. His father was a translator and poet. When his parents were arrested for anti Russian writings, they were exiled and due to prison hardships they passed away. This impact on young Conrad stayed all his life and one can see melancholy in most of his works.



Initially not willing to take up a career in writing, Conrad became a mariner. But writing eventually came to him. Hsi first few novels were about seafaring life and the emotions were of turbulence, danger and hardships. Some examples were the very popular Lord Jim (1900). Some others were An Outcast of the Islands (1896), The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (1897) and Heart of Darkness (1899).


The Idiots was Joseph Conrad’s first short story. It was written in 1896 during his honeymoon and published in The Savoy magazine later that year.


When a couple have children with congenital abnormality, they are unable to contain it. The family life is disturbed which eventually leads to a tragic end.

 

William Schwenck Gilbert - 322 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

William Schwenck Gilbert was a poet and dramatist.

Gilbert had shown a proclivity for caustic wit and sarcasm from an early age and it was this talent that put him on the path to greatness. Beginning in 1861, Gilbert contributed dramatic criticism and humorous verse (unsigned) to the popular British magazine Fun. Some of his work was accompanied by cartoons and sketches which were signed "Bab." Many of the characters in the G&S operas were modelled after some of Gilbert's "Bab" characters. A collection of these Bab Ballads was later published in 1869.

The period from 1868 to 1875 was a very fruitful period for Gilbert, primarily because two plays which he wrote in 1871 netted him huge financial rewards. This was also the year that he collaborated briefly with a composer named Sullivan on a production entitled Thespis which did not bring the duo any notoriety. Their collaboration, however, spanned twenty-five years and produced a total of fourteen comic operas of which The Grand Duke, the last in the order, premiered in 1896.

Source - gsarchive blog


The Yarn of the Nancy Bell first appeared in Fun Magazine, was a series of humorous verses with many illustrations by Gilbert


'Twas on the shores that round our coast

From Deal to Ramsgate span,

That I found alone on a piece of stone

An elderly naval man.