Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 25749

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'This ["The Eldest Son"] is extremely fine [...]. At the end of each act I got up and walked for a while in a sort of exultation over the sheer art of the thing.' After approximately 25 lines of praise and constructive criticism, Conrad adds '[...]I am writing after a second reading.'
Century: 1900-1945
Date: Between 17 Jul 1909 and 18 Jul 1909
Country: England
Time: evening
daytime
Place: city: Aldington, Nr Hythe
county: Kent
specific address: Forehead
   
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: John Galsworthy
Title: The Eldest Son
Genre: Drama
Form of Text: Manuscript: Unknown
Publication details: 1912
Provenance: n/a

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 25749  
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: 255-6
  Additional comments: Letter from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy,dated 18 July 1909, Aldington.

Citation: Joseph Conrad, Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911 (Cambridge, 1990), 4, p. 255-6, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=25749, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

Internal evidence from this source and a letter the previous day (p.255 of source text) allows the time of these two reading experiences to be placed fairly precisely as the evening of 17 July and the very late evening of 18 July 1909.

 

 

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