It seems
to me that if a few book-buyers would kindly come forward and
confess--with proper statistics--the result would be a few columns quite
pleasant to read in the quietude of September.
JOSEPH CONRAD & THE ATHENAEUM
[_19 Sep. '08_]
The _Athenaeum_ is a serious journal, genuinely devoted to learning. The
mischief is that it will persist in talking about literature. I do not
wish to be accused of breaking a butterfly on a wheel, but the
_Athenaeum's_ review of Mr. Joseph Conrad's new book, "A Set of Six," in
its four thousand two hundred and eighteenth issue, really calls for
protest. At that age the _Athenaeum_ ought, at any rate, to know better
than to make itself ridiculous. It owes an apology to Mr. Conrad. Here we
have a Pole who has taken the trouble to come from the ends of the earth
to England, to learn to speak the English language, and to write it like a
genius; and he is received in this grotesque fashion by the leading
literary journal! Truly, the _Athenaeum's_ review resembles nothing so much
as the antics of a provincial mayor round a foreign monarch sojourning in
his town.
* * * * *
For, of course, the _Athenaeum_ is obsequious. In common with every paper
in this country, it has learnt that the proper thing is to praise Mr.
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