ARNOLD BENNETT AS AN "ANONYMOUS" REVIEWER OF CONRAD'S EARLY FICTION

In words from The Secret Agent an "impenetrable mystery" still hangs over the identity of several anonymous reviewers of Conrad's early fiction and especially over the authorship of two important Academy pieces of 1899 and 1900. Both of these are reprinted in Norman Sherry's Conrad: The Critical Heritage (as numbers 40 and 4 3) (1) where they appear as sig nificant markers in the pattern of contemporary response to Conrad's fiction. The first is an assessment of Conrad upon the occasion of Tales of Unrest having been "crowned" by The Academy as a book of the year (14 January 1899, 66-67), the second a generally enthusiastic review of Lord Jim (10 November 1900, 443) and one whose criticism of the length of this "after dinner story" was to be recalled by Conrad in his Author's Note to the novel in 1917. These gaps in our knowledge are especially surprising. After all, Conrad knew most of the "Academy gang" of reviewers at this time (including Edward Garnett and E.V. Lucas), (2) and one might have expected some passing reference in his letters to the identity of the reviewer(s). Still, even at this late date it may be possible to penetrate the mask of anonymity where, I suggest, we shall find one reviewer to be responsible for both pieces, and a reviewer who later went on to extend his Conradian interests in the pages of The Academy.