Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 24966

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'There are books one seems to have read before, and books one doesn't want to read, books that one reads with annoyance, pleasure, exasperation or wonder; but this, your "P[oor]M[an's] H[ouse" is a book for which one seems to have waited all the time [...]. I am not a critic. [...]. I will tell you instead what has happened. I walked into my room, came up to the table you know, took up your book and opened it at the first page of the text (not of the preface). When I came to myself with a queer sense of unutterable fatigue I was still standing and I had reached page 62--not glancing through mind you, but giving each phrase, each word, each image its full value as I went.' Hence follow 16 lines of unqualified praise.
Century: 1900-1945
Date: Between 3 Oct 1908 and 31 Oct 1908
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: city: Luton Hoo Estate
county: Bedfordshire
specific address: Someries
location in dwelling: Study/library
   
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: Stephen Reynolds
Title: A Poor Man's House
Genre: Social Science, Geography / Travel, Agriculture / horticulture / husbandry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: 1908 London Bodley Head
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 24966  
Source - Print  
  Author: Joseph Conrad
  Editor: Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies
  Title: The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911
  Place of Publication: Cambridge
  Date of Publication: 1990
  Vol: 4
  Page: 134-135
  Additional comments: Letter from Joseph Conrad to Stephen Reynolds, tentatively dated October 1908, Someries.

Citation: Joseph Conrad, Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911 (Cambridge, 1990), 4, p. 134-135, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=24966, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

This experience has been recorded in some detail because of the precise description of the reading experience. For note on author see letter May 1908 p. 84 of source text, fn. 2

 

 

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