An Outcast of the Islands (Inscribed first edition)

First issue, with "this" for "their" on p. 26, line 31 and "absolution" for "ablution" on p. 110, line 12. Inscribed by Joseph Conrad to his friend and literary executor Richard Curle: "To Richard Curle, with the remark that this book of which he has so many varieties of copies is perhaps the one of all my novels that attracted the least favourable notice being considered in the character of a novel of adventure a complete failure. J.C." The inscription is undated, though perhaps ca. 1915-1920, based on the timeline of Curle and Conrad's friendship. Also, with the bookplate of book collector A. Edward Newton (1864 - 1940) to upper pastedown. A Very Good+ copy. Publisher's green cloth titled in gilt. Some wear to cloth at head of spine and some toning to edges. Spine a bit cocked. A very attractive copy with an excellent inscription and distinguished provenance. Outcast of the Islands, Conrad's second novel, returns to the subject of a European man caught in a high-stakes conflict in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Both critics and the author himself have historically expressed ambivalence about the novel. In the introduction of a 1919 edition, Conrad reflected, "An Outcast of the Islands belongs to those novels of mine that were never laid aside; and though it brought me the qualification of 'exotic writer' I don't think the charge was at all justified. For the life of me I don't see that there is the slightest exotic spirit in the conception or style of that novel. It is certainly the most tropical of my eastern tales. The mere scenery got a great hold on me as I went on, perhaps because (I may just as well confess that) the story itself was never very near my heart." Curle himself described the work as a story "of violent emotion soon spent.the action is, I consider, too long drawn out" (Joseph Conrad: A Study, p. 32). Conrad's inscription, then, is a striking and candid expression of his feelings about the novel, some twenty years after its publication. Richard Curle was "the great friend of Conrad's later years" (Brebach, p. 13). Curle and Conrad met in 1912, after Curle had reviewed Conrad's novel Nostromo, and remained friends until Conrad's death in 1924. Throughout the last decade of the author's life, Curle frequently assisted the author in literary matters: he coordinated the publication of Conrad's work in periodicals, helped compile Conrad's Notes on Life and Letters (1921), and wrote the preface to Conrad's essay collection Into the East (1923). The connection between the two men is immortalized in Conrad's novel The Arrow of Gold (1919), which he dedicated to Curle. After Conrad's death, Curle, along with Ralph Wedgewood, served as his literary executor until Conrad's son took over the role in 1944. Brebach, Raymond. "Conrad and Curle." The Conradian, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1996), pp. 5-14. Very Good +.…