A Set of Six | Page 3

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ORIGINAL CHANGED TO 45 25 Commander-in Commander-in- 155
35 "'I "I 253 20 Ferand Feraud 283 5 "Vostri anelli."
"'Vostri anelli.'"
A SET OF SIX
BY JOSEPH CONRAD

Les petites marionnettes Font, font, font, Trois petits tours Et puis s'en
vont. - NURSERY RHYME

TO MISS M. H. M. CAPES
[page intentionally blank]
AUTHOR'S NOTE
THE six stories in this volume are the result of some three or four years

of occasional work. The dates of their writing are far apart, their origins
are various. None of them are connected directly with personal ex-
periences. In all of them the facts are inherently true, by which I mean
that they are not only possible but that they have actually happened.
For instance, the last story in the volume, the one I call Pathetic, whose
first title is Il Conde (misspelt by-the-by) is an almost verbatim
transcript of the tale told me by a very charming old gentleman whom I
met in Italy. I don't mean to say it is only that. Anybody can see that it
is something more than a verbatim report, but where he left off and
where I began must be left to the acute dis- crimination of the reader
who may be interested in the problem. I don't mean to say that the
problem is worth the trouble. What I am certain of, however, is that it is
not to be solved, for I am not at all clear about it myself by this time.
All I can say is that the personality of the narrator was extremely
suggestive quite apart from the story he was telling me. I heard a few
years ago that he had died far away from his be- loved Naples where
that "abominable adventure" did really happen to him.
Thus the genealogy of Il Conde is simple. It is not the case with the
other stories. Various strains contributed to their composition, and the
nature of many of those I have forgotten, not having the habit of
making notes either before or after the fact. I mean the fact of writing a
story. What I remember best about Gaspar Ruiz is that it was written,
or at any rate begun, within a month of finishing Nostromo; but apart
from the locality, and that a pretty wide one (all the South American
Continent), the novel and the story have nothing in common, neither
mood, nor in- tention and, certainly, not the style. The manner for the
most part is that of General Santierra, and that old warrior, I note with
satisfaction, is very true to himself all through. Looking now
dispassionately at the various ways in which this story could have been
presented I can't honestly think the General super- fluous. It is he, an
old man talking of the days of his youth, who characterizes the whole
narrative and gives it an air of actuality which I doubt whether I could
have achieved without his help. In the mere writing his existence of
course was of no help at all, because the whole thing had to be carefully
kept within the frame of his simple mind. But all this is but a laborious
searching of memories. My present feeling is that the story could not
have been told otherwise. The hint for Gaspar Ruiz the man I found in a

book by Captain Basil Hall, R.N., who was for some time, between the
years 1824 and 1828, senior officer of a small British Squadron on the
West Coast of South America. His book published in the thirties
obtained a certain celebrity and I suppose is to be found still in some
libraries. The curious who