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An Outcast of the Islands (Oxford World's Classics)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780192838407
Edition: Revised
ISBN: 0192838407
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: August 15, 2002
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
The only annotated edition available, An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Conrad's second novel, is a tale of intrigue in an eastern setting. Peter Willems, a clerk in Macassar, granted a "second chance" at a remote river trading post, falls ever more hopelessly into traps set by himself and others. A parable of human frailty, with love and death the major players, this is a story of a man unable to understand others and fated never to possess his own soul.
A run of bad luck at cards, the failure of a small speculation undertaken on his own account, an unexpected demand for money from one or another member of the Da Souza family--and almost before he was well aware of it he was off the path of his peculiar honesty. It was such a faint and ill-defined track that it took him some time to find out how far he had strayed amongst the brambles of the dangerous wilderness.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Book for the Die Hard Conrad fans- NOT for the casual reader
I love any book by Joseph Conrad and am on my way to reading just about everything he wrote. My next goal is to re-read it all again.
However, Outcast of the Island is not a "GREAT" book or piece of literature. It is interesting and worth reading especially if you like Conrad. I see it as a colonial/romance novel critical of the "British Empire" and of a man caught in the empire trade game who is led by his own devices to survive in his own game.
I like the descriptions of the exotic ... Read More
Rating: - ...the second white mans grave in Sambir
"I know the white man...in many lands have I seen them, always the slaves of their desires..."
This is Conrads second book and like his first it deals with the colonial enterprise but in this book white men are their own worst enemies. The native Malay characters are given more in the way of identity in this book and they are seen as having complex views. There is intrigue in this book as white men from different nations try to assert their dominance in the region but the Malays too have ... Read More
Rating:  - A Powerful Tale of the Moral Destruction of a Man
Conrad has a exciting style of writing which consists of artfully mixed poetic prose and moral analysis. The language of the text alone is enough to make this a great novel, perhaps even an epic poem. The intensity of the prose is such that I was driven backwards into my seat for most of the novel. A prequel to _Almayer's Folly_, An Outcast...is a true must read.
Rating: - A powerful tale of greed and passion
AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS was both Conrad's second novel and the second novel in a trilogy of books featuring Almayer (the first book being ALMAYER'S FOLLY and the third Conrad's final novel, THE RESCUE), who is a major minor character in this one after being the major character in his first novel. This novel is not as strong an effort as the novels from his major phase, but it is nonetheless a book of great power and wonderfully illustrates most of the great themes that run through all of his books. ... Read More
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