Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 18581

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'I am reading Maupassant with delight. I have just finished "Le Lys rouge" by Anatole France. it means nothing to me. I can do no serious reading. I have just begun to write -only the day before yesterday.["The Two Vagabonds" subsequently to become "An Outcast of the Islands"(1896)]
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Between 8 Aug 1894 and 18 Aug 1894
Country: Switzerland
Time: n/a
Place: city: Geneva
specific address: 'La Roseraie'. Champel
   
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 Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 3 Dec 1857
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Master mariner
Religion: originally Polish Catholic, by now agnostic/atheist
Country of origin: Poland
Country of experience: Switzerland
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Guy de Maupassant
Title: unknown
Genre: Fiction
Form of Text: Print: Book, see additional comments
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 18581  
Source - Print  
  Author: Joseph Conrad
  Editor: Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies)
  Title: The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 1, 1861-1897
  Place of Publication: Cambridge
  Date of Publication: 1983
  Vol: 1
  Page: 171
  Additional comments: Letter in French to Marguerite Poradowska, probably 18 August 1894, Geneva

Citation: Joseph Conrad, Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies) (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 1, 1861-1897 (Cambridge, 1983), 1, p. 171, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=18581, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

Conrad read a number of Maupassant's works during this period. According to Yves Hervouet in 'The French Face of Joseph Conrad' (Cambridge, 1990) pp.23-31, 'An Outcast of The Islands' shows strong evidence of influences from 'Bel-Ami' (1883), 'Une Vie' (1883) 'Fou?' (1884) and 'Yvette' (1884). All were first published in book form rather than in reviews.

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)