ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the epistolary relationships maintained between John Galsworthy and Edward Garnett and between Galsworthy and Joseph Conrad. Drawing on the idea of epistolary literacy – the practices of letter writing, reading, interpretation and response – S. Whyman argues that Samuel Richardson invited readers to engage with his text and suggest narrative developments. The chapter aims to indicate that what happens within the narrative world is tied to things that happen or stretch beyond its material confines and imagined world. It provides various letters that not only reveal that Fraternity travelled differently through the world, but also that on its return to Galsworthy the world of the novel had been stretched, perhaps even distorted, in such a way that it needed to be made more resilient before it travelled further. Fraternity’s route through the world, then, was neither a straightforward nor singular one of inspiration, followed by creation and reception.
