Record Number: 33485

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The writer [Ford Madox Ford] never saw Conrad read any book of memoirs except those of Maxime Ducamp and the Correspondence of Flaubert; those we read daily together over a space of years. But somewhere in the past Conrad had read every imaginable and unimaginable volume of politician's memoirs, Mme de Campan, the Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier, Benjamin Constant, Karoline Bauer, Sir Horace Rumbold, Napoleon the Great, Napoleon III, Benjamin Franklin, Assheton Smith, Pitt, Chatham, Palmerston, Parnell,the late Queen Victoria, Dilke, Morley [...] There was no memoir of all these that he had missed or forgotten—down to "Il Principe" or the letters of Thomas Cromwell. He could suddenly produce an incident from the life of Lord Shaftesbury and work it into "Nostromo" [...].'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 3 Jan 1907 and 14 Jan 1907

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Montpellier
county: Hérault
specific address: Hotel Continental et Riche, Place de la Comédie

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

---

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:

France

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham

Title:

His People and Other Tales and Sketches

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Biography, Geography / Travel

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

(London: Duckworth, 1906)

Provenance

owned

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

33485

Source:

Print

Author:

Ford Madox Ford

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1924

Vol:

n/a

Page:

59

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance, (London, 1924), p. 59, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33485, accessed: 26 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

Apart from Graham's sketch I am unable to identify a likely biography or memoir of Parnell that Conrad may have read. See also UKRED ID 21538 and Conrad's letter to Pinker in 'Collected Letters' vol 5,p.490 in which Conrad suggested that Pinker leave out Graham's sketch of Parnell from the new edition of 'His People'.