Record Number: 33626
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Nothing approaching it [Cunninghame Graham's book "Mogreb-el-Acksa"] has appeared since Burton's "Mecca" [...] and Burton's "Mecca" is nowhere near it.'
Century:1850-1899
Date:unknown
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:3 Dec 1857
Socio-Economic Group:Gentry
'Szlachta', or Polish landed gentry/nobility
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
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah
Genre:Geography / Travel
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details1855
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:33626
Source:Joseph Conrad
Editor:Frederick 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:125
Additional Comments:
Letter to the Hon. Mrs A. E. Bontine, 4 December 1898.
Citation:
Joseph Conrad, Frederick Karl and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 2, 1898-1902, (Cambridge, 1986), 2, p. 125, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33626, accessed: 18 April 2024
Additional Comments:
Range of reading expereince unknown but probably between 1894 and 1898. There is textual evidence in Conrad's early Malay-based fiction that he derived his knowledge of Islamic customs directly from Burton's text. See for example John Lester, 'Conrad and Islam', Conradiana 13 (1981), 166-68 and John Lester, Conrad and Religion (London: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 44-47.
