University of Virginia Library

2. Under Western Eyes in the North American Review

Although James Pinker had probably been communicating with Colonel George Harvey since 1909, Harvey's magazine, the North American Review, was not mentioned in direct relation to Under Western Eyes until October 1910. Conrad probably sent, via Pinker, one copy of the typescript arranged and corrected by Robert Garnett. On 1 October Conrad wrote to Pinker, "I trust you will be able to conclude with the N. A. R. but its a very small review—I mean in point of size" (Letters, 4, 372).[6] From this day, the American serialisation is not mentioned again in Conrad's extant correspondence.[7]

The text of Under Western Eyes found in the North American Review is the closest of the four published versions to the final text of TS. This suggests that the variation in the text of the North American Review reveals many of the corrections made by Robert Garnett in May 1910 or changes imposed by an editor or compositor during serialisation. Many of the changes are spelling corrections and can be attributed to a typesetter, but some implement minor stylistic changes. For example, Mr de P— "addressed them repeatedly" (TS11) in TS, but this was changed to "addressed the people repeatedly" for the American magazine. In TS, Razumov stopped thinking of killing Haldin because "The corpse would hang round his neck nearly as fatal as a living man" (TS47). The magazine text reads, "The corpse hanging round his neck would be nearly as fatal as the living man". Comparison of the texts reveals many similar transpositions that have insignificant effect on the meaning of a sentence, but do affect the rhythm. Distinct changes are found as well,

such as "unsubtle example" (TS38) to "obvious example"; "unenergetic" (TS109) to "listless"; "interests" (TS178) to "purposes"; but many of these changes appear to reflect someone following Conrad's request to "correct" the text—that is, someone who believed they had the authority to do so. This points to Robert Garnett. He can probably be connected to many of the variants that are carried through to all published texts.[8] He contributed to the text of Under Western Eyes heavier punctuation than TS and a collection of subtle changes to sense and rhythm, some, or conceivably all, of which Conrad might have made himself had he read over the clean typescript in May 1910. There is no evidence, however, that he did so.[9]

Many readings unique to the American serial can also be found, probably indicating the interventions of editors and compositors.[10] For example, "the spree" (TS24) is "a spree", "suspect" (TS30) is "a suspect" and "spoke-like" (TS44) is "spook like" only in the American serial. Small variations such as these can be found throughout the text of the North American Review. [11] But, in addition to these, several large variations between TS and the North American Review text appear in the final chapter of the novel. The following passages were omitted in the North American Review text, but retained in all other published states:

These omissions were probably implemented by the compositor simply to keep the text of the end of the novel from flowing over to the next page.[12] But, most importantly, the absence of these passages in the American serial assists the reconstruction of the transmission of text when Harper and Brothers'

text is compared.[13] Because Harper and Brothers' text does not omit these passages and does not contain the many readings unique to the American serial, it is highly unlikely that the North American Review text was used as setting copy, during the urgency of August and September 1911.[14] Furthermore, because Harper and Brothers' text does not exhibit a return to TS punctuation, it is also highly unlikely that the typescript used by the North American Review was used as setting copy by Harper and Brothers.[15]