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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 25769


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At one time I knew entire pages of "Madame Bovary" by heart. But if "Madame Bovary" is a masterpiece "Salammbô" is close to a miracle. I well remember that when I was writing "[The]N[igger]of [the] N[arcissus]", "Salammbô" was my morning book.While taking coffee I would read a page or two at random--and there is hardly a page that isn't marvellous.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

From: 1879

Country:

unknown

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


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

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Poland

Country of Experience:

unknown

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Gustave Flaubert

Title:

Madame Bovary

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

first published Paris: Charpentier, 1857. The specific French edition read by Conrad unidentified

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

25769

Source:

Print

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Editor:

Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies

Title:

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

1990

Vol:

4

Page:

310

Additional Comments:

Trans. of letter in French from Joseph Conrad to Robert d'Humičres dated 23 December 1909, Aldington.

Citation:

Joseph Conrad, Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911, (Cambridge, 1990), 4, p. 310, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=25769, accessed: 04 October 2024


Additional Comments:

Robert d'Humičres (1868-1915), translated "The Nigger of the Narcissus" (1910). Conrad's debt to Flaubert is well documented (see Yves Hervouet, Cambridge University Press, 1990)

   
   
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