Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist. His success is even more amazing since he did not learn to speak English until he was in his 20Žs. ConradŽs narrative style places him at the beginning of the Modernist period of literature. Gaspar Ruiz was written in 1904. This story was the only piece of Conrad's fiction ever adapted by the author for cinema, as Gaspar the Strong Man (1920.). An excerpt from this adventure story reads ôThat voice, senores, proceeded from the head of Gaspar Ruiz. Of his body I could see nothing. Some of his fellow-captives had clambered upon his back. He was holding them up. His eyes blinked without looking at me. That and the moving of his lips was all he seemed able to manage in his overloaded state. And when I turned round, this head, that seemed more than human size resting on its chin under a multitude of other heads, asked me whether I really desired to quench the thirst of the captives.ö