THE FOLLOWING passages from Tadeusz Bobrowski's two-volume Pamiȩtnik mojego życia. O sprawach i ludziach mego czasu [Memoirs of My Life: On the Affairs and Men of My Time], edited by J. N. Niewiarowski and published posthumously in Lwów in 1900, are sources for A Personal Record, Conrad partly translating and partly summarizing some of this material in his text. The passages are keyed to the text of A Personal Record by page–line number. The translations are by Zdzisław Najder.

For a discussion and analysis of Conrad's use of Bobrowski's memoirs, see ‘Joseph Conrad and Tadeusz Bobrowski’, Najder, 1997, pp. 44–67.

[38.27–39.21]

[Teofila's] outstanding qualities were not so much her education and beauty – in which my elder sister excelled, although she had a pleasant appearance and an adequate education – but her commonsense, sweet disposition, and an adaptability to people and situations. Her death was a great moral loss to us all, for it deprived us of that daily assistance that can be given only by a woman convinced that every occupation in family life is worthwhile as long as it brings satisfaction to someone. I am certain that had she lived she would have brought a blessing to her home as a wife, mother, and mistress of the house, and that she would always have exuded that atmosphere of contentment that she could create under all circumstances.