According to Legend, the discoverer of Conrad’s talent was Edward Garnett (1868–1937), who despite his youth enjoyed considerable authority as a literary critic and as a publisher’s reader for the house of Unwin. Conrad himself contributed to this legend, which was later perpetuated by Jean-Aubry. In fact, however, the first “official” reader of the manuscript of Almayer’s Folly was another of Unwin’s readers, Wilfrid Hugh Chesson (1870–1952). His opinion was favorable, and the text was passed on to Garnett. “Perhaps I may add,” said Chesson twenty-five years later, “that the purely stylistic and academic merits of Mr Conrad’s work were even in 1894 too obvious to make the ‘discovery’ of him by a literary critic much more than an evidence of reasonable attention to his business.”

As to Garnett himself, he was apparently impressed by the manuscript, but still “uncertain whether the English was good enough for publication.” Because his wife Constance, later a well-known translator from the Russian, “was much more sensitive to language and to the beauty of a writer’s style than Edward,” he showed Almayer’s Folly to her, saying that “it was the work of a foreigner and asked her opinion of his style.” According to her biographer, Constance thought that Conrad’s foreignness was a positive merit.

On 8 October 1894, Conrad paid a visit to Unwin’s office and met not only the owner of the firm but also both readers.