Notes on Joseph Conrad, With Some Unpublished Letters
Price: $100.00
Hard Cover. London: Myers & Co., 1925. First Edition. Very Good.
First edition, first printing. Publisher's gray paper-covered boards, with titles in black to front board, and frontispiece portrait of Conrad; in its original brown dust jacket, with front panel printed in black. Very good book, with light toning to spine and board edges, light wear to spine, corners lightly bumped, and spine slightly shaken; unclipped dust jacket separated into three parts - front panel, rear panel and rear flap, and front flap - with some chipping to top and left edges of front panel and rear flap fold. Overall, a pleasing copy, internally clean. Notes on Joseph Conrad is a reflection on the life, writings, and literary influence of the late Joseph Conrad by British poet and critic Arthur Symons. From 1895-1896, along with Aubrey Beardsley and Leonard Smithers, Symons edited the literary magazine The Savoy, for which Joseph Conrad was a notable contributor. Throughout the text, Symons references Conrad's letters to draw comparisons between his different works and to provide insight into the author's creative process. For example, Symons writes in his foreword: "Conrad's novels have no plots, and they do not need them; for, as he said: 'Invention had that mysterious, almost miraculous power of providing striking effects by means impossible of detection, which is the last word of the highest art.'" Indeed, the text reads much like a conversation between Symons' impressions of Conrad and Conrad's perceptions of himself - an eloquent homage to "one of the most original and sinister and somber personalities of our time, and one of the greatest novelists." Item #JC074
