Record Number: 33484

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The writer [Ford Madox Ford] never saw Conrad read any book of memoirs except those of Maxime Ducamp and the Correspondence of Flaubert; those we read daily together over a space of years. But somewhere in the past Conrad had read every imaginable and unimaginable volume of politician's memoirs, Mme de Campan, the Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier, Benjamin Constant, Karoline Bauer, Sir Horace Rumbold, Napoleon the Great, Napoleon III, Benjamin Franklin, Assheton Smith, Pitt, Chatham, Palmerston, Parnell,the late Queen Victoria, Dilke, Morley [...] There was no memoir of all these that he had missed or forgotten—down to "Il Principe" or the letters of Thomas Cromwell. He could suddenly produce an incident from the life of Lord Shaftesbury and work it into "Nostromo" [...].'

Century:

1850-1899, 1900-1945

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

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:

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

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

George Tomline

Title:

Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honorable William Pitt

Genre:

Biography, Politics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33484

Source:

Print

Author:

Ford Madox Ford

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1924

Vol:

n/a

Page:

59

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance, (London, 1924), p. 59, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33484, accessed: 09 May 2025

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Additional Comments:

Several biographies/edited memoirs of Pitt the Elder (Lord Chatham) appeared in the 19th century, and it is not possible to establish which Conrad read, as none was listed as in his possession at the time of his death.