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Record Number: 25777

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'At one time I knew entire pages of "Madame Bovary" by heart. But if "Madame Bovary" is a masterpiece "Salammb�" is close to a miracle. I well remember that when I was writing "[The]N[igger]of [the] N[arcissus]", "Salammb�" 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:

Between 1879 and 1896

Country:

England or France

Time

morning

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:

England or France

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Gustave Flaubert

Title:

Salammb�

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

first published Paris: CharpenL�vy, 1862, Charpentier 1879 . The specific French edition re-read by Conrad unidentified, thogh his fort exposure early 1879 (see below) must hav been to the L�vy edn.

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

25777

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'Humi�res 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=25777, accessed: 20 February 2026

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Additional Comments:

Robert d'Humi�res (1868-1915), translated "The Nigger of the Narcissus" into French in 1910. Conrad first read "Salammb�" in the L�vy edition while a seaman on the clipper "Duke of Sutherland" either in the Southern Ocean or in Sydney Harbour. He either re-read it on his honeymoon in Brittany in June 1896 or in Essex in October 1896. Conrad's debt to Flaubert is well documented (see Yves Hervouet, Cambridge University Press, 1990)