Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 28943

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Throughout his career Conrad was haunted by the idea of writing a Napoleonic novel, for which he did a prodigious amount of background reading.[...] However it was not until June 1920 that he eventually started to write "Suspense", and early in 1921 he spent two months in Corsica to saturate himself in Napoleonic atmosphere, revive memories of harbours and sailors and do further background reading, as the list of books borrowed from the Ajaccio library, recorded by Jean-Aubry, indicates.' [see note 118, p.316]
Century: 1900-1945
Date: Between 4 Feb 1921 and 27 Mar 1921
Country: France (Corsica)
Time: n/a
Place: city: Ajaccio
county: (now Corse-du-Sud)
specific address: Grand Hotel d'Ajaccio et Continental
   
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: France (Corsica)
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Marcellin Pellet
Title: Napoléon à l'île d'Elbe
Genre: Biography
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: Paris: Charpentier, 1888
Provenance: Borrowed (circulating library)

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 28943  
Source - Print  
  Author: Yves Hervouet
  Editor: n/a
  Title: The French Face of Joseph Conrad
  Place of Publication: Cambridge
  Date of Publication: 1990
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 255, 316
  Additional comments: The author cites the English translation of G. Jean-Aubry's biography, "The Sea Dreamer" (1957), p.279.

Citation: Yves Hervouet, The French Face of Joseph Conrad  (Cambridge, 1990), p. 255, 316, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=28943, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

This is a secondary source derived from another secondary source (Jean-Aubry). There is no specific reference to this reading in Conrad's letters from Ajaccio.

 

 

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