Joseph Conrad (born J髗ef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski; 3 December 1857 Berdichev; Ukraine - 3 August 1924) was a Polish novelist who wrote in English; after settling in England.

Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English; although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and then always with a marked Polish accent). He wrote stories and novels; predominantly with a nautical setting; that depict trials of the human spirit by the demands of duty and honour. Conrad was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature. While some of his works have a strain of romanticism; he is viewed as a precursor of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors.

Films have been adapted from or inspired by Conrad's Victory; Lord Jim; The Secret Agent; An Outcast of the Islands; The Rover; The Shadow Line; The Duel; Heart of Darkness; Nostromo; and Almayer's Folly.

Writing in the heyday of the British Empire; Conrad drew upon his experiences in the French and later the British Merchant Navy to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a worldwide empire while also plumbing the depths of the human soul.