Abstract
Conrad’s reading during his maritime years is examined using innovative methodology. Starting with close reading of a rare first-hand record, which is aligned with bibliographic and historical evidence about the international circulation of texts, this reading experience is reconstructed. Theoretical concepts of space and place are then applied to travelling readers, and shipboard readers, in particular. The ‘bibliographic credibility’ of Conrad’s maritime reading is explored through the print culture of seaports, and the colonial book trade. Using representations of shipboard reading in The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ and Chance, spaces of reading on board ships, including lighting, are examined. The binary of ‘common’ versus ‘elite’ reader challenged in relation to Conrad’s own reading The depictions of material texts, here periodicals, in several of Conrad’s fictional works reveal their distribution to seaports and the colonial periphery.
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Chambers, H. (2018). ‘Read by Chance on the Indian Ocean’: Reconstructing Conrad’s Maritime Reading. In: Conrad's Reading. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76487-0_3
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