An Outcast of the Islands.

First edition. 8vo., a very good copy in original vertically-ribbed dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, t.e.g., fore-edges uncut, binding a little shaken but firm. London, T. Fisher Unwin. Conrad's second novel following "Almayer's Folly" of the previous year. This copy displays first printing points in having the misprints "this" for "their" on line 31, p.26; "absolution" for "ablution" p. 110, line 12; "9" omitted from the page number on p. 129, and "hate" for "fate" on p. 356, line 26. That there are so few mistakes is surprising as a fire destroyed the original electrotype plates late in 1895, and the book was hastily reset."An Outcast" was published in March 1896 and the critics were generally kind. The most telling notice appeared in the "Saturday Review" - while the anonymous reviewer praised the work as "perhaps the finest piece of fiction that has been published this year, as 'Almayer's Folly' was one of the finest that was published in 1895", he also wrote "One fault it has, and a glaring fault . Mr. Conrad is wordy; his story is not so much told as seen intermittently through a haze of sentences . He has still to learn the great half of his art, the art of leaving things unwritten". Conrad was deeply upset and wrote to the unknown critic. On May 24th., 1896, he wrote to Edward Garnett: "I wrote to the reviewer. I did! And he wrote to me. He did! And who do you think it is? - He lives in Woking. Guess. Can't tell? I will tell you. It is H.G. Wells. May I be cremated alive like a miserable moth if I suspected it! Anyway he descended from his 'Time-machine' to be as kind as he knew how". Wells had replied that Conrad had "everything for the making of a splendid novelistic dexterity". Two years later Conrad was to tell Wells: "For the last two years (since your review of the 'Outcast' in the 'Saturday Review' compelled me to think seriously of many things till then unseen) I have lived on terms of close intimacy with you, referring to you many a page of my work, scrutinising many sentences by the light of your criticism. You are responsible for many sheets torn up and also for those that remained untorn". Cagle A2(a); Wise 2.…