Almayer's Folly

Joseph Conrad

ISBN 10: 0192816977 / ISBN 13: 9780192816979

Published by Oxford University Press, 1992

About this Item

Almayer's Folly was Conrad's first novel, set in a remote Bornean outpost at the end of the last century. Conrad draws on his own experience to present the strains of life at a cultural crossroads. The Dutch trader, Almayer, is stranded in Sambir, thirty miles up a virtually unknown equatorial river. He lives among old and new cultures; his wife is Sulu (Filipino), behind him live his Arab rivals, across the river is the Malay rajah's campong, inland are the primitive Dyak head-hunters, and decisions taken in London and Amsterdam affect every household in the settlement. In its social density and variety the novel prefigures Conrad's later masterpieces Nostromo and The Secret Agent . This is the first critical edition of Almayer's Folly , with an Introduction which demonstrates the novel's importance as an exploration of colonialism, and shows that in this early work Conrad had already elaborated the fictional technique and conception of human life than served to make him a key figure in the evolution and achievement of literary modernism. This book is intended for general readers, students of English and European Literature at 6th form, undergraduate, and postgraduate lvel.

Seller Inventory # 00106845596

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Almayer's Folly
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192816977
• ISBN 13: 9780192816979
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

This first critical edition of Almayer's Folly (1895), Conrad's first novel, is a probing presentation of the strains of life at a cultural crossroad. Almayer, a Dutch trader stranded in Sambir up a virtually unknown equatorial river, finds himself immersed in a dense world of cultures, both old and new. The introduction and notes by in this first critical edition demonstrate the novel's importance as an exploration of colonialism, and mark the initial appearance of Conrad's fictional technique and conception of human life that make him a key figure in the evolution and achievment of literary moderism.

Book Description

Set in eastern Borneo during the 1880s, Almayer's Folly recreates the conflicts of imperial Europe with the colonized East Indies. This edition, first published in 1994, presents Joseph Conrad's first novel freed from seven layers of publishers' and typists' corruptions. Complete textual and contextual histories, full annotation and two regional maps are provided.