The Idiots was Joseph Conrad's first short story and it was written during his honeymoon (1896). Jean-Piere Bacadou returned from military service to find the family farm run down. He decides to take over from his aged parents... He gets married; his mother dies; and twin boys are born. The parents discover that the boys are retarded. Another son is born who is also retarded. As a reaction, Bacadou converts from a republican to Catholic royalist... The Idiots was published for the first time by The Savoy magazine, in 1897. This magazine was established by rather controversial figures in what at the time was called the "decadent movement", which embraced the idea of "art for art's sake". Oscar Wilde was another contributor. Joseph Conrad (originally Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine in 1857. With a strong passion towards the sea, Conrad served in French and British vessels during eight years. Today Conrad is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction in English - his third language. The Idiots integrates the collection "Classics of World Literature", developed by Atlântico Press, a publisher company present in the global editorial market, since 1992.
