Record Number: 33493
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'I have spoken of his affection for Dickens. Trollope he liked. Thackeray I think not over much, though he had a due regard for such creations as Major Pendennis. Meredith's characters were to him "seven feet high," and his style too inflated. He admired Hardy's poetry. He always spoke with appreciation of Howells, especially of the admirable "Rise of Silas Lapham". His affectionate admiration for Stephen Crane we know from is introduction to Thomas Beer's biography of that gifted writer. Henry James in his middle period--the Henry James of "Daisy Miller", "The Madonna of the Future", "Greville Fane", "The Real Thing", "The Pension Beaurepas"--was precious to him. But of his feeling for that delicate master, for Anatole France, de Maupassant, Daudet, and Turgenev, he has written in his "Notes on Life and Letters". I remember too that he had a great liking for those two very different writers, Balzac and Mérimée. Of philosophy he had read a good deal, but on the whole spoke little. Schopenhauer used to give him satisfaction twenty years and more ago, and he liked both the personality and the writings of William James.'
Century:1850-1899, 1900-1945
Date:unknown
Country:unknown, probably England
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:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:3 Dec 1857
Socio-Economic Group:Gentry
'Szlachta', or Polish landed gentry/nobility
Master mariner and author
Religion:Roman Catholic
Country of Origin:Poland
Country of Experience:unknown, probably England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:unknown
Genre:Philosophy
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:33493
Source:John Galsworthy
Editor:n/a
Title:Reminiscences of Conrad, in: Castles in Spain and other Screeds
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1927
Vol:n/a
Page:90-91
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
John Galsworthy, Reminiscences of Conrad, in: Castles in Spain and other Screeds, (London, 1927), p. 90-91, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33493, accessed: 09 May 2025
Additional Comments:
This is the sole piece of evidence of Conrad's reading of Schopenhauer, whose ideas, critics unanimously agree, profoundly influenced Conrad's writing. See Nic Panagopoulos "The Fiction of Joseph Conrad: The influence of Schopenhauer and Nietzche" 1998, Peter Lang. Conrad nowhere mentions reading Schopenhauer in his letters or essays.
