Foreword

Simmons, Allan H., Stape, J. H., The Conradian : the Journal of the Joseph Conrad Society (U.K.)

IN RESPONSE TO reviews of The Secret Agent in 1907, Conrad fulminated: "I've been so cried up of late as a sort of freak, an amazing bloody foreigner writing in English" (CLZ 488). Foreignness is a hallmark of this novel, from its factual source in the "Greenwich Outrage" of 1894 to Conrad's explanation for its "honourable failure": "I suppose there is something in me that is unsympathetic to the general public. ... Foreignness, I suppose" (CLA 9-10).

When early reviewers referred to the author as a "Slav," they touched a raw nerve: Conrad, who had adopted British nationality, countered to his friend Edward Garnett, "you seem to forget that I am a Pole" (CLZ 492), at the time a …

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Publication information: Article title: Foreword. Contributors: Simmons, Allan H. - Author, Stape, J. H. - Author. Journal title: The Conradian : the Journal of the Joseph Conrad Society (U.K.). Volume: 32. Issue: 1 Publication date: Spring 2007. Page number: VII+. © Editions Rodopi B. V. Autumn 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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