The author's heavily corrected typescript. 41pp, each page with numerous autograph additions, deletions and emendations by the author. Signed by the author at the base of the final page with the text "8-9 thousand words". Bound together in dark blue full morocco with a colour reproduction of the portrait of Conrad by Walter Tittle bound in as a frontispiece and a original silver gelatine photograph of Conrad with J.B. Pinker tipped in to the leaf following the manuscripts.With the scarce first edition of Prince Roman (privately printed by for the author [in fact for T.J.Wise], 1920) Number 20 of 25 copies, original wrappers in fine condition.

Conrad's tale based on the life the Polish Patriot, Prince Roman Sanguszko. The story is written from the perspective of an unnamed narrator recalling having met Prince Roman and being told by the old Prince of his life and adventures. He gives up his comfortable position in the aristocracy to fight as a (virtually) unknown soldier resisting Russian oppression. When captured, he has every opportunity to escape punishment, but declares himself unequivocally committed to Polish liberation, which results in him being sent to the Siberian mines, before returning to live in humble circumstances on what should have been his own estate before devoting his life to helping other people. It is an unashamedly patriotic piece of writing on Conrad's part based partly on his own experiences from his youth in Poland.
It was originally published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review in 1911, with the first individual appearance in the T.J.Wise pamphlet in 1920 (included here) and eventually the collected in the book of stories, Tales of Heresay (1925).
The manuscript deftly demonstrates Conrad's creative process. The frequent alterations, sometimes just a word or phrase, but also excising and rewriting whole passages, clearly shows the constant refining with which Conrad crafts his work.

Stock ID: 33056