Letters of Joseph Conrad to Marguerite Poradowska, 1890-1920

Joseph Conrad

Much has been conjectured about the role of Marguerite Poradowska in Conrad's emotional life. His surviving correspondence amply demonstrates that she was a privileged interlocutor, particularly during the five years prior to the publication of his first novel Almayers Folly (1895). Poradowska was related to Conrad by her marriage to his cousin Aleksandr Poradowski, a veteran of the 1863 Polish Insurrection whom she met in Belgium. Shortly after their marriage in 1874, they went to live in the Ukraine for ten years, during which she integrated into her husband's family and learned the language.