The intention of every other piece of prose may be discussed and even mistrusted but the purpose of a cookery book is one and unmistakable. Of all the books produced since the most remote age by human talents and industry those only that treat of cooking are, from a moral point of view, above suspicion. Since anthropophagy (oh, the pretentious words you learn as an English student and then leap at the least excuse to use!) is one of the few subjects I cannot commit myself to on this food blog, let us now move right along to Conrad’s preface :įrom Conrad’s Preface to A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House: I came across a reference to this piece in an essay by Tony Tanner called ‘Eating and Narrative in Conrad’–an article whose allure diminished slightly when it became apparent that TT intended to focus on the symbolic meaning of cannibalism in a short story called ‘Falk’. The Polish-born, French-speaking, English-writing novelist set about composing a preface for his wife’s book, with results that I would almost describe as winsome…except that I imagine Conrad would take umbrage at such a cuddly adjective. In 1923, Joseph Conrad’s wife Jessie wrote A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House. Available from Flickr under a Creative Commons Attribution license. 'Joseph Conrad drawing and books', © Ben Sutherland, 2010.
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