CONRAD'S ENGLISH
Mrs. Joseph Conrad divulges the secret of Conrad's mastery of the English language in the April number of "Pearson's Magazine."' In her article, "How Conrad Wrote," she writes: When he landed at Lowestoft from the s.s. Mavis (there seems to be no proof whether this ship was a sailing ship or a s;eamer), on June 18, 1878, Conrad knew only a few words of English. He learned these from the crew of the vessel, the fishermen and shipwrights of the East Coast. Also he had laboriously spelled his way through an old copy of the "Standard" and the remaics of a worn and battered Bible, which he had found on board. This, then, was the beginning, the first contact w.th the language of which he was to become so great an ornament and master. In so far as his mastery and understanding of the written word were concerned, and his wonderful ability to mal:e use of every known expression in the English vocabulary, he was entirely successful; yet to the end his spoken. English was as. foreign as it was possible for anyone's to be.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 26
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187CONRAD'S ENGLISH Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 26
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