Record Number: 27289
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Since the age of five I have been a great reader [...]. At ten years of age I had read much of Victor Hugo and other romantics. I had read in Polish and in French, history, voyages, novels; I knew "Gil Blas" and "Don Quixote" in abridged editions; I had read in early boyhood Polish poets and some French poets, but I cannot say what I read on the evening [in September 1889] before I began to write myself. I believe it was a novel, and it is quite possible that it was one of Anthony Trollope's novels.It is very likely.My acquatance with him was then very recent. He is one of the English novelists whose works I read for the first time in English. With men of European reputation, with Dickens and Walter Scott and Thackeray, it was otherwise. My first introduction to English imaginative literature was "Nicholas Nickleby". It was extraordinary how well Mrs. Nickleby could chatter disconnectedly in Polish [...] It was, I have no doubt an excellent translation. This must have been in the year 1870.'
Century:1850-1899
Date:Between 1 Jan 1862 and 31 Dec 1867
Country:probably Russia (Ukraine)
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:Child (0-17)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:3 Dec 1857
Socio-Economic Group:Gentry
'Szlachta', or Polish landed gentry/nobility
child
Religion:Polish Catholic
Country of Origin:Poland
Country of Experience:probably Russia (Ukraine)
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author:Adam Bernard Mickiewicz de Poraj
Title:Pan Tadeuz
Genre:Poetry
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details1834
Provenanceowned
Polish text almost certainly owned by Conrad's father
Source Information:
Record ID:27289
Source:Joseph Conrad
Editor:Mara Kalnins
Title:A Personal Record
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1998 (1912)
Vol:n/a
Page:73
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Joseph Conrad, Mara Kalnins (ed.), A Personal Record, (London, 1998 (1912)), p. 73, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=27289, accessed: 15 October 2024
Additional Comments:
Conrad's father had read Mickiewicz's main works including also 'Graznya' (1823) and 'Konrad Wallerod' (1828) to his son at an early age.See Frederick Karl 'Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives' (Faber: 1979, p.66). In the evidence from the primary source cited Conrad implies that he also read them himself.
