An Outcast of the Islands
Price: $150.00
Hard Cover. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896. First Edition. Near Fine.
First American edition, first printing. Publisher's green cloth, front board and spine lettered and decorated in gilt, black and red. Near fine, with some toning to spine, a touch of rubbing to spine ends, very mild soiling to front and rear boards, and small closed tear to edges of pp. 205 and 207. Overall, a very attractive copy of Conrad's second novel. The "outcast of the islands" is Peter Willems, a man who is caught embezzling from his employer, but given another chance by his wealthy benefactor Tom Lingard, who sets Willems up with a trading post job on the coast of Borneo. In this area, disreputable local figures wish to aid a rich trader named Syed Abdulla in establishing a rival trading post. They conspire to manipulate the morally weak Willems, who has fallen in love with the daughter of a local chieftain, into betraying Lingard's economic interests. An Outcast of the Islands is the second book in Conrad's Lingard trilogy, bookended by Conrad's first book, Almayer's Folly (1895), and The Rescue (1920). An Outcast of the Islands is often compared to Heart of Darkness (1899) due to its similar setting and themes of colonialism and isolation. T. S. Eliot, in his classic poem "The Hollow Men" (1925), quotes lines from both books - "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" from Heart of Darkness and "Life is very long" from An Outcast of the Islands. The book was adapted into a 1951 British film directed by Carol Reed (Oliver!, The Third Man), starring Trevor Howard and Ralph Richardson. Item #JC097
