Record Number: 33497

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have spoken of his affection for Dickens. Trollope he liked. Thackeray I think not over much, though he had a due regard for such creations as Major Pendennis. Meredith's characters were to him "seven feet high," and his style too inflated. He admired Hardy's poetry. He always spoke with appreciation of Howells, especially of the admirable "Rise of Silas Lapham". His affectionate admiration for Stephen Crane we know from his introduction to Thomas Beer's biography of that gifted writer. Henry James in his middle period--the Henry James of "Daisy Miller", "The Madonna of the Future", "Greville Fane", "The Real Thing", "The Pension Beaurepas"--was precious to him. But of his feeling for that delicate master, for Anatole France, de Maupassant, Daudet, and Turgenev, he has written in his "Notes on Life and Letters". I remember too that he had a great liking for those two very different writers, Balzac and Mérimée. Of philosophy he had read a good deal, but on the whole spoke little. Schopenhauer used to give him satisfaction twenty years and more ago, and he liked both the personality and the writings of William James.'

Century:

1850-1899, 1900-1945

Date:

unknown

Country:

unknown, probably England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

unknown, probably England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Thomas Hardy

Title:

unspecified poetry

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33497

Source:

Print

Author:

John Galsworthy

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Reminiscences of Conrad, in: Castles in Spain and other Screeds

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1927

Vol:

n/a

Page:

90-91

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

John Galsworthy, Reminiscences of Conrad, in: Castles in Spain and other Screeds, (London, 1927), p. 90-91, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33497, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

Although the date range when Conrad read Hardy's poems is unknown it must have been after 1898 when Hardy's first collection "Wessex Poems" appeared.