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Record Number: 28289


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 [sic]. 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


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Joseph Conrad

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Dec 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

child/adolescent

Religion:

Polish 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



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


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://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=28289, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

The date range of this reading experience is speculative but covers the period of Conrad's adolescence in Poland and Russia. Turgenev's friend Louis Viardot made early translations of a number of his (Turgenev's) works into French, and it may be one of these that Conrad read. A bibliographic search in French has not however yielded any further information about early translations of this particular work.

   
   
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