THE GENIUS BY THE HEARTH
Joseph Conrad as I Knew Him. By Jessie Conrad. (Heine. mann. 6s..) This book lies properly outside the realm of critical analysis. It is a direct and artless.personal document by a brave woman and devoted wife, and the reader can only accept it, impressed by its sincerity, and honoured by its confidence. Reading between the lines, one sees that Mrs. Conrad undertook no easy task when, as a girl of twenty-two, she married this mysterious man. Very speedily she realized that her lot was to be something outside the normal connubial experience, and she accordingly searched for character, determined to carry out her share of the bargain. That she succeeded heroically we have full testimony in the facts of her subsequent life with Conrad, and the tribute of his devotion to and reliance upon her. Added to this there is the recognition of her worth by his friends. That is always a searching test of a young wife.
For the greater part of her married life Mrs. Conrad was prac- tically crippled, and she had to carry a husband whose nervous system was constantly strung up to frenzy-point by the virus of gout and genius.
Conrad possessed all the qualities of eccentricity which are romantically associated with the creative artist. He would suddenly decide that the bathroom was the only place where he could write, and would shut himself up there for several days, while the family did as well as it could with hip-baths. The whole house—books, table-cloths, furniture, shelves— was scarred by burns from his cigarette-ends and matches ; and he frequently set fire to himself by leaning against lighted gas-stoves, or putting live matches in his pockets. He had, too, a curious trick of memory, for he always post-dated all his recollections by two years. Frequently in company he men- tioned his marriage as having been in 1898. This, however, was the year in which their first son was born. Mrs. Conrad at first would correct him hastily, but would be rebuffed by the following reply : " You will allow me, my dear, to know as much about it as you do. After all, he is my son as well as yours." Such is the logic of irritable genius : no pleasant thing to live with, unless we have a corresponding gift of spiritual faith and dignity. Mrs. Conrad must have had such a Possession. Indeed, it shines through the pages of this simple record.
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