a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language.
Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. 
He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an impassive, inscrutable universe.

 write about anti-heroic characters
Reflect imperialism and colonialism
profoundly explore the human psyche.