Food in the Novels of Joseph Conrad

Transcription

1 Food in the Novels of Joseph Conrad Kim Salmons writes lucidly about Conrad. She also writes about food with zest. The combination is delightful. Salmons book promises to transform our understanding of Conrad s work by situating it within the historical context of the late nineteenth-century production and consumption of food. Christopher GoGwilt, Fordham University, President of the Joseph Conrad Society (US) Kim Salmons shows how food, from cans of dried soup or jars of beef extract to bombe glacé, permeates Conrad s fiction. She highlights the importance of rice production, preparation and consumption in Almayer s Folly and how the history of cannibalism at sea similarly questions colonial assumptions in Falk. Through similar attention to the politics of food in The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes, she establishes food as a significant semantic element in Conrad s fiction. Robert Hampson, Chair of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK) For this highly original book, Kim Salmons has mined an unusual, yet vital aspect of human life: our need for, and relationship with food. Tracing the consumption of food through a number of tales, Salmons shows how Conrad conceived of food as the site and symbol of various political, colonial and cultural tensions and struggles. This is an exciting new perspective from which to interrogate Conrad s works, making this book a very welcome addition to Conrad studies. Linda Dryden, Professor of English Literature, Edinburgh Napier University, UK

2 Kim Salmons Food in the Novels of Joseph Conrad Eating as Narrative

3 Kim Salmons St Mary s University Twickenham, UK ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Control Number: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover Illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

4 Dedicated to the memory of David Miller.

5 Foreword Like his acquaintance with languages, Conrad s experience with food was various and far-reaching. The Polish culture that, as a child of the gentry, he was taught to revere celebrated not only historical and religious tradition but hospitality and the joys of the table. In Pan Tadeusz, a Polish-language epic written in exile, Adam Mickiewicz begins by evoking scenes in and around a Lithuanian manor house, with its fields of rye, its kitchen gardens stocked with mint, cucumbers, cabbages, and gooseberries; a hunt breakfast starts with coffee laced with cream straight from the dairy, moves on to mulled ale and smoked goose, ham, and tongue, followed by a beef stew; afterwards, the company sets off on a foray for wild mushrooms. For much of Conrad s childhood, he was removed from such abundance, but the ethos stayed with him, and when work allowed one of his great pleasures in later life was to ask friends and acquaintances down to Kent. He promised J.B. Pinker stout and lobster and always laid in a bottle of Tobermory whisky when Richard Curle was coming. Better still, visitors could enjoy the culinary skills of Jessie Conrad who was no mean cook. In between life in Austrian and Russian Poland and life in the English countryside, he had survived the rigours of long sea voyages (crew agreements stipulated the rations of dried peas, hardtack, and salt meat) and had access to a rich array of foods in ports such as Bangkok, Amsterdam, Marseilles, and Singapore. During his spells ashore in London, when funds allowed he favoured French, Spanish, and Italian bars and restaurants. On a chillier tack however, at the very beginning of Chance vii

6 viii Foreword Charles Powell is seen at a riverside inn, eating his dinner in dignified loneliness at the head of a long table, white and inhospitable like a snow bank. It is not surprising that from Kaspar! Makan!, Mrs. Almayer s Malay summons to dinner, which are the first words of Conrad s first novel, to the conversation in Suspense, his last, unfinished one, when over a tureen of smoking soup at Cantelucci s Inn, Cosmo Latham and Dr Martel discuss politics, heroism, and gratitude, Conrad s narratives are full of moments of hospitality offered or denied, and references to food and drink from delectable to dire. What is surprising and immensely rewarding in Kim Salmons treatment of such episodes is the breadth and depth of resonance that she hears. For example, Falk s confession that he has eaten man leads to a scrutiny of nineteenth-century scandals and debates about the frequency of cannibalism, especially in the context of exploration in high latitudes. The allusions to rice in Almayer s Folly point towards imperial networks of production and exchange. In The Secret Agent, the association of anarchism and vegetarianism, in some ways inevitable and in others paradoxical, evokes a whole history of nineteenth-century beliefs and deeds. In a particularly forceful chapter on Under Western Eyes, Dr. Salmons counterpoints the virtually sacramental power of bread in Russian culture with instances of hunger and devouring appetite. These instances are literal and metaphorical: famine is both an ever-threatening physical threat and a dearth of freedom and imagination in the body politic; ravenous cravings are the results of both uncertainty or instability and the political urge to conquer and absorb. Without losing sight of the texture of Conrad s prose, every chapter opens new perspectives on his works. This is not a monograph upon a single theme, but a study wide in its implications. Laurence Davies University of Glasgow; President of the Joseph Conrad Society Joseph Conrad Society (UK)

7 Preface The idea for this book came about while reading Joseph Conrad s short story Falk: A Reminiscence in which the protagonist of the same name, stranded at sea, shoots and eats a fellow shipmate in order to survive. The heroic characteristics displayed by both men in their struggle for survival embedded in my consciousness the lengths that humans will go in order to secure a good meal. The question then arose: how else does Conrad use food in his fiction? With this thought in mind, I returned to the novels and re-read them from a new culinary perspective, discovering that Conrad s texts are littered with references to food and eating that only a handful of scholars primarily Tony Tanner, Paul Vlitos and Stephen Donovan have recognised and acknowledged. Food, it seems, was not considered a scholarly endeavour and references to food were considered incidental to a text; although attitudes to the value of literary food studies are rapidly changing. This book, therefore, was conceived with the intention of showing that references to food and eating are an essential component of Conrad s fiction, providing important historical, sociological and political contexts. The dilemma, however, was in selecting four texts that would form the main chapters of this book. It was clear that Almayer s Folly, Conrad s first novel, would set the scene by encouraging the reader to suspend and hopefully dismiss the stereotypical view of the East by creating a narrative of food which challenges western perceptions. The subsequent choice of novels, including the short story, Falk, are representative of the key themes of Conrad s ix

8 x Preface fiction, namely the social, historical and political factors including that most taboo of subjects, cannibalism that shaped the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chosen texts also represent Conrad s artistic philosophy conveyed through his characters engagement with food and eating and reflect either literally or metaphorically the hunger for certitude in an uncertain and insatiable modern world. Food is necessary to life and therefore something to which all readers can relate. As such, an analysis of food and eating in Conrad s novels makes accessible an author who has a reputation for being difficult to read. Similarly, the textual analysis of food references contributes to the existing scholarly cannon with which it engages while presenting new and previously overlooked narratives made visible by focussing on that most taken-for-granted activity: eating. The writing of this book has included many contented hours of reading and archival research which has left me with a recognition of the value of vegetarianism and its role in political activism during the nineteenth century. Most importantly, I have gained an insight into the debt that Britain owes to the culinary diversity of those it colonised and how the food of the Other continues to shape and enhance British culture. This book has been influenced by conversations with fellow Conradians who have shared their vast knowledge of Conrad s life and work through the community of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK). My gratitude for helping expand and add to the initial idea goes to Professor Allan Simmons. I would like to thank him for his patience, friendship and brilliance. Equally, I thank Professor Laurence Davies whose phenomenal and generous knowledge has helped me to shape this study and understand the history and etymology of a variety of foodstuffs. I thank also Hugh Epstein, Tesni Hollands, Claire Tapia, Liz Hoggard, Jess Kidd, Tim Goldstone, Fran Leslie and Kathryn Enticott for their friendship. I thank my mother and father, Sylvia and Frank Bunce who have always taken an interest in my studies, and my brothers: Lee Ash who never fails to make me laugh and Stuart Bunce who I am very happy to have in my life. I would, foremost, like to thank my husband, Robert Salmons, for his loyalty and support in enabling me to follow this literary path. Equally I thank my children, Bibi and Dusty, for letting me read and present my ideas and parts of this book to them. They have given and continue to give me love and companionship. Twickenham, UK Kim Salmons

9 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Historical Context 1890 to Food as Cultural Narrative in Almayer s Folly 47 4 Cannibalism and Falk: A Reminiscence 67 5 Anarchy, Vegetarianism and The Secret Agent 83 6 Bread and Liberty in Under Western Eyes 97 7 Conclusion 117 Index 121 xi

10 Abbreviations Unless otherwise stated, all references to Conrad s works are to the Dent Uniform Edition (London: J.M. Dent, ). This has the same pagination as the Dent Collected Edition (London: J.M. Dent, ) and the Oxford World s Classics Edition. AF Circle HOD LE LJ NLL NN PR SA UWE Almayer s Folly Joseph Conrad and His Circle (Jessie Conrad) Heart of Darkness Last Essays Lord Jim Notes on Life and Letters The Nigger of the Narcissus A Personal Record The Secret Agent Under Western Eyes References to Conrad s letters are to Laurence Davies et al., eds, The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, 9 vols. to date (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 ), or to G. Jean-Aubry, Joseph Conrad: Life and Letters, 2 vols. (London: Heinemann, 1927). The following abbreviations are used: CL LL The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad: Life and Letters xiii