Record Number: 28289

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The truth of the matter is that it is you who have opened my eyes to the value and quality of Turgeniev. As a boy I remember reading "Smoke" in a Polish translation (a feuilleton of some newspaper) and the "Gentlefolks" in French.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1865 and 1873

Country:

Poland or Russia

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Joseph Conrad

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Dec 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry
'Szlachta', or Polish landed gentry/nobility

Occupation:

child/adolescent

Religion:

Roman Catholic

Country of Origin:

Poland

Country of Experience:

Poland or Russia

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Ivan Turgenev

Title:

A Nest of Gentlefolks

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

first published in Russian in 1859, no information available on early French translation (see also additional comments)

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28289

Source:

Print

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Editor:

Laurence Davies, Frederick R. Karl and Owen Knowles

Title:

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 6, 1917-1919

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

2002

Vol:

6

Page:

77

Additional Comments:

Letter from Joseph Conrad to Edward Garnett dated late April 1917, Capel House

Citation:

Joseph Conrad, Laurence Davies, Frederick R. Karl and Owen Knowles (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 6, 1917-1919, (Cambridge, 2002), 6, p. 77, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28289, accessed: 04 October 2024

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Additional Comments:

The date range of this reading experience is speculative but covers the period of Conrad's adolescence in Poland and Russia. The first translation into French listed at the Bibliothèque National de France is not until 1892, 'Un Nid de Seigneurs' trans. E.-M de Vogué (Paris: H. Gauthier; 1892). No earlier one have been identified, so either conrad's memory is at fault or the wording of his letter to Garnett is ambiguous.