Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 20397

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Arrived: A book with a Chinese title of Scandinavian authorship translated by Mrs Reynolds. I am touched and pleased indeed by the kind`attention. Have looked into it alreday with the translator alone in view. And that is all right. That's all I have to say. If I were to talk of skill and fluency and mastery and the rest of the journalese bosh you would not believe me and you would be right. But the thing will do and that's the most an honest man can say of any writing.'
Century: 1900-1945
Date: Between 16 Jun 1904 and 2 Jul 1904
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: Stanford near Hythe
county: Kent
specific address: Pent Farm
   
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 and author
Religion: originally Polish Catholic, by now agnostic/atheist
Country of origin: Poland
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Henri Jean François Borel
Title: Wu Wei:A Phantasy Based on the Philosophy of Lao-Tse
Genre: Philosophy
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: Luzac and Co. 1903, trans. by 'Meredith Lanson' Mabel Reynolds, John Galsworthy's sister.
Provenance: owned
Internal evidence indicates gift from the translator.

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 20397  
Source - Print  
  Author: Joseph Conrad
  Editor: Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies)
  Title: The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 3, 1903-1907
  Place of Publication: Cambridge
  Date of Publication: 1988
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 148
  Additional comments: Letter from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy dated 2nd July 1904, Pent Farm.

Citation: Joseph Conrad, Frederick R. Karl (and Laurence Davies) (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 3, 1903-1907 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 148, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=20397, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

Borel (1869-1933) was a Dutch writer and journalist, not Scandinavian as Conrad thought. The text was first published in 1897 as ‘Wu Wei.Eene studie, naar aanleiding van Lao Tsz's filosofie.’ (Information from Dutch digital library website 'Digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren' accessed through Borel entry in Wikipedia (Dutch language version).

 

 

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