20 MAY 1922, Page 13

HERMAN MELVILLE AND MR. CONRAD.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECIATOR."] Ste,--With reference to the review of the book on Herman Melville by Mr. Strachey in the Spectator of May 6th, there seems a remarkable affinity between the man Jackson in The Confidence Man and the sick man in Mr. Conrad's Nigger of the Narcissus. Can Mr. Conrad have unconsciously adapted Mel- ville, or is it a case of both writers having come across the same type of man in their experience—of course, with a difference —for the characters are not exact analogues?—I am, Sir, &c.,

J. H. B.