Record Number: 18880

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I had a treat in the shape of a number of the "Singapore Free Press" 2 and a half columns about "Mr Conrad at home and abroad". extremely laudatory but in fact telling me I don't know anything about it. Well I never did set up as an authority on Malaysia. I looked for a medium in which to express myself. I am inexact and ignorant no doubt (most of us are) but I don't think I sinned so recklessly. Curiously enough all the details about the little characteristic acts and customs which they hold up as proof I have taken out (to be safe) from undoubted sources--dull,wise books.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1 Oct 1898 and 13 Dec 1898

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Stanford near Hythe
county: Kent
specific address: Pent Farm

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Joseph Conrad

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Dec 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry
'Szlachta', or Polish landed gentry/nobility

Occupation:

Master mariner and author

Religion:

Roman Catholic

Country of Origin:

Poland

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Hugh Clifford

Title:

Article in Singapore Free Press

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Ephemera

Form of Text:

Print: Newspaper

Publication Details

Singapore, 1st September 1898

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18880

Source:

Print

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Editor:

Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies)

Title:

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 2, 1898-1902

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

1986

Vol:

2

Page:

130

Additional Comments:

Letter from Joseph Conrad to William Blackwood 13th December 1898, Pent Farm, Kent

Citation:

Joseph Conrad, Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies) (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 2, 1898-1902, (Cambridge, 1986), 2, p. 130, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18880, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

According to fn.2 p.130 of source text, Conrad was not aware at the time that the article was by Hugh Clifford whose book "Studies in Brown Humanity" he had read and reviewed for the "Academy" (see letter to C.L. Hind 16th April 1898 p.57 of source text). Norman Sherry in "Conrad's Eastern World" (1971) devotes a whole chapter (pp.139-170) to the 'dull wise books' that he read as background for his South East Asia stories.