An Outcast of the Islands: A Novel

Joseph Conrad

Jul 2015 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Peter Willems’s life enters a downward spiral when he is caught and, despite his motives, subsequently dismissed for embezzling from his employer. Saved from financial ruin once again by his benefactor, Captain Lingard, Willems finds himself at another post, and facing similar problems when he finds it difficult to work Almayer, the outpost’s chief. Willems’s life becomes even further complicated when he falls in love with Aissa, a young, local woman.

An Outcast of the Islands is Joseph Conrad’s second novel, and in addition to featuring characters and events he introduced in his first book, Almayer’s Folly, deals with many of the same themes that Conrad also explores in his later works, Nostromo, and Heart of Darkness. A third novel, The Rescue, published in 1920, makes up the loose trilogy. An Outcast of the Islands was adapted for film in 1951.

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About the author

Polish author Joseph Conrad is considered to be one of the greatest English-language novelists, a remarkable achievement considering English was not his first language. Conrad’s literary works often featured a nautical setting, reflecting the influences of his early career in the Merchant Navy, and his depictions of the struggles of the human spirit in a cold, indifferent world are best exemplified in such seminal works as Heart of Darkness, Lord JimM, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, and Typhoon. Regarded as a forerunner of modernist literature, Conrad’s writing style and characters have influenced such distinguished writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and George Orwell, among many others. Many of Conrad’s novels have been adapted for film, most notably Heart of Darkness, which served as the inspiration and foundation for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film Apocalypse Now.