ABSTRACT
The most interesting biographical materials to investigate Conrad’s sexuality would begin with letters written in his midteens through his early twenties. Unfortunately, these don’t exist. The letters begin with 1861-when Conrad was four-and then jump to 1883, when he was twenty-six. When we finally get to the trove of letters reproduced in the Davies, Karl, and Stape collection, those to Marguerite Poradowska stand out immediately, and these would, at least at first, appear to contradict the notion that Conrad was anything but heterosexual. Though Conrad always called her his “dear aunt,” Poradowska was married to Conrad’s cousin, Aleksander Poradowski. Aleksander left Marguerite a widow in 1890. Marguerite was nine years older than Conrad, but she was a successful writer and a cultivated, beautiful woman. His many letters to her are often affectionate, sincere, playful, and flirtatious. Here are some examples of passages that would seem flirtatious to any nineteenth-, twentieth-, or twenty-first-century reader, in English translations from the French by Karl and Davies:
While on his way to Africa in 1890, he wrote, “The screw turns and carries me off to the unknown. Happily, there is another me who prowls through Europe, who is with you at this moment” (Collected Letters 1, 51).1 While in Africa he wrote, “You have endowed my life with new interest, new affection; I am very grateful to you for this. Grateful for all the sweetness, for all the bitterness of this priceless gift” (CL 1, 55). Writing from Matadi, he closes his letter with “Your very loving [très aimant] nephew” (CL 1, 57). In response to hearing of the loss of her cousin in 1891: “I admire you and love you more and more” (CL 1, 86).
