Conrad Letters III

Book Reviews, Volume 32:1, 1988 editorialize: both of these qualities make the notes extremely valuable, especially in the case of Waste, a play whose immediate parochialism could possibly prove so distancing as to preclude an intelligent reading of a worthwhile play. In addition, Kennedy includes Granville Barker's costume note for The Marrying of Ann Leete and the revised opening scene of Waste as appendices, as well as a textual note, a biographical record, and a select bibliography pointing the reader both to Granville Barker's other plays and to a number of useful critical studies on the playwright. The issue of whether Granville Barker was a minor playwright in respects other than quantity of output or whether he needs to be reconsidered as a neglected major playwright will continue as a point of discussion: neither the plays themselves nor Kennedy's fine commentary are conclusively persuasive. But the collection does make available the major works of a writer who clearly merits more detailed and thoughtful attention as a playwright than he has been given, and does so with intelligence and insight. For this reason, it is highly recommended as an addition to the library of any scholar interested in Granville Barker, in the drama of the period, and in the development of modern British drama in general. Bruce Henderson Ithaca College_________________________ CONRAD LETTERS III The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad. Volume III: 1903-1907. Frederick R. Karl and Laurence Davies, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. $44.50 The value of The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad was widely noted when the first of eight volumes appeared in 1983. Reviewers' accolades continued when volume II appeared in 1986 (see, for example, my comments on volume II in ELT, 30:3 [1987], 343-45); and Frederick Karl and Laurence Davies have continued their policies of meticulous editing, judicious annotating, and enlightening commentary in III, which covers the years 1903-1907. What perhaps remains for reviewers of III and subsequent volumes to do rather than to continue well-earned but repetitious praise is to discuss the current installment of letters that will total some 4000 when all eight volumes have been published, indicating something of Conrad's states of mind as he continued to mature as family man, writer, and commentator on life. He wrote prolifically to an ever-widening circle of acquaintances on such things as authorship, the family's health, financial difficulties, lethargy, an oc98 Book Reviews, Volume 32:1, 1988 casional sense of accomplishment, and the sporadic recognition of his increasing stature as writer. Given the almost daily distractions, it is surprising that Conrad was able to accomplish what he did, despite complaints in the letters about lack of productivity. Take for example the Conrads' health. Joseph was the victim of gout and frequent bouts with neuralgia, malaria, eczema, and other illnesses. Add to these Jessie's injury to her knees in January 1904, the consequences of which would distract the family for the rest of her Ufe with continuing medical attention, rest cures, and occasional surgery and hospitalization. Borys, frequently ill as a child, suffered among other things in the years 1903-1907 from scarlet fever, a severe case of measles, congested lungs (thought at one time to have been tuberculosis), whooping cough, pleurisy, and rheumatic fever. And son John, born in August 1906-when Conrad was almost forty-nine and very conscious of advancing age-soon joined Borys with whooping cough. Add to that Conrad's financial woes. He never felt secure, but 19031907 was particularly unnerving for him, as frequent letters to his literary agent J. B. Pinker asking for funds suggest. Davies, writing in a perceptive introduction to III, would have the serious student of Conrad's letters approach the complaints about his purse more circumspectly than the casual reader might: Perhaps one can overstate the unpleasantness of his financial plight. As sub-tenant of Pent Farm he paid, when so disposed, £30 a year, about one tenth of his average income. Another twentieth went to the Inland Revenue. The unfortunate Mr. O'Connor, whose services as secretary and tutor cost £14 a quarter . . . could be replaced by an even more unfortunate "girl...