Almayer's Folly

by Joseph Conrad

Book Overview

Almayer's Folly , Joseph Conrad's first novel, is a tale of personal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils of colonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, it tells... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486426777
• ISBN13: 9780486426778
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Overlooked Debut

Though overshadowed by his later work, Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly is one of the most impressive debut novels - excellent in itself and fascinating to fans and scholars in how it has in embryo so much of his later greatness. When we consider that he lacked literary training and did not learn English until his twenties, the accomplishment is near-unbelievable. All fans will of course want this, and its relative straight-forwardness makes it a good place for neophytes to start. Like most Conrad, the book can be thoroughly enjoyed on a very simple level as an adventure tale in an exotic locale. This story of nineteenth-century Borneo has much exciting drama: smuggling, international political intrigue, internecine rivalry and fighting, and much more. There is even a very moving and somewhat unconventional love story as well as a focus on domestic matters to which Conrad rarely returned. His depictions of the little-known landscape are also lush and memorable; he truly seems to bring to life a world very few Westerners know anything of even now with all its excitement and danger. These are the elements that initially got most attention, much to Conrad's chagrin because they were not his real point. However, they are still notable, and we can now enjoy all elements in proportion. The others are indeed noteworthy; it is truly nothing less than remarkable how much food for proverbial thought Conrad injects into this early work and how many themes later dealt with in more detail were already here. He would of course write many more stories featuring the sea and out-of-the-way locations, but these are only trappings for his tried and true themes, the most immediate being colonialism as well as the clash between Eastern and Western cultures, racism, and other ensuing factors. The story is set at a time when the Dutch and English both had interest in Borneo, dramatizing their profound and often destructive effect on the indigenous culture with stirring realism. The colonialism condemnation is not as overt as in later Conrad, but he spares no detail in depicting the havoc it wreaked. This debut novel interestingly focuses more on the native perspective than later works, giving a nuanced view and earning considerable sympathy for the oppressed culture. Indeed, in a true blow to Western ego, non-whites eventually triumph, and their constant cries against the "infidel" and benedictions of Allah's merciful Providence ring true. More important, though, is the tragic vision that all this symbolizes. Few writers - nay, few human beings - have been as pessimistic as Conrad, and he began at least as darkly as he ended. The appropriately named novel focuses mostly on its tragic title hero, who is not without admirable qualities but is simply unable to overcome his flaws. His dreams are big, but self-delusion, prejudice, greed, and narrow-mindedness ensure continuing failure and miserable destruction. The novel is a grand vista of individual tragedy; loathsome

Overlooked Greatness -- One of the Best Debuts Ever

Though overshadowed by his later work, Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly is one of the most impressive debut novels - excellent in itself and fascinating to fans and scholars in how it has in embryo so much of his later greatness. When we consider that he lacked literary training and did not learn English until his twenties, the accomplishment is near-unbelievable. All fans will of course want this, and its relative straight-forwardness makes it a good place for neophytes to start. Like most Conrad, the book can be thoroughly enjoyed on a very simple level as an adventure tale in an exotic locale. This story of nineteenth-century Borneo has much exciting drama: smuggling, international political intrigue, internecine rivalry and fighting, and much more. There is even a very moving and somewhat unconventional love story as well as a focus on domestic matters to which Conrad rarely returned. His depictions of the little-known landscape are also lush and memorable; he truly seems to bring to life a world very few Westerners know anything of even now with all its excitement and danger. These are the elements that initially got most attention, much to Conrad's chagrin because they were not his real point. However, they are still notable, and we can now enjoy all elements in proportion. The others are indeed noteworthy; it is truly nothing less than remarkable how much food for proverbial thought Conrad injects into this early work and how many themes later dealt with in more detail were already here. He would of course write many more stories featuring the sea and out-of-the-way locations, but these are only trappings for his tried and true themes, the most immediate being colonialism as well as the clash between Eastern and Western cultures, racism, and other ensuing factors. The story is set at a time when the Dutch and English both had interest in Borneo, dramatizing their profound and often destructive effect on the indigenous culture with stirring realism. The colonialism condemnation is not as overt as in later Conrad, but he spares no detail in depicting the havoc it wreaked. This debut novel interestingly focuses more on the native perspective than later works, giving a nuanced view and earning considerable sympathy for the oppressed culture. Indeed, in a true blow to Western ego, non-whites eventually triumph, and their constant cries against the "infidel" and benedictions of Allah's merciful Providence ring true. More important, though, is the tragic vision that all this symbolizes. Few writers - nay, few human beings - have been as pessimistic as Conrad, and he began at least as darkly as he ended. The appropriately named novel focuses mostly on its tragic title hero, who is not without admirable qualities but is simply unable to overcome his flaws. His dreams are big, but self-delusion, prejudice, greed, and narrow-mindedness ensure continuing failure and miserable destruction. The novel is a grand vista of individual tragedy; loathsome

Colonial delusions

This was Conrad's first novel, first published in 1895. It is the start of a series of novels and stories set in South East Asia. He had first hand knowledge of the region due to his own work as a merchant sailor. He also knew a lot, obviously, from Alfred Russell Wallace's travel account The Malay Archipelago. Main themes of the story are the greed of colonialism and the racism of colonial routine. The story: a young colonial Dutchman, grown up in Java, takes a job as a clerk in a trading firm in Makassar, on the island of Celebes, keen to get rich. A legendarily rich merchant captain picks him as son in law for his adopted Malay daughter from pirate background, offers him a job as station manager in Borneo, with prospects of a huge inheritance. All goes wrong. The business fails over the years, not the least due to Almayer's lack of social intelligence. The fortune of the father in law dwindles. The station is unable to compete or even coexist with the local ruler and an Arab competitor. The marriage fails, partly because Almayer is a racist, partly because the wife has other ideas of the world, as one would expect from a Sulu pirate. He invests his emotions in a beautiful daughter and dreams of settling in Europe with her, after striking it rich. He dreams of a Borneo El Dorado. He understands nothing and nobody, certainly not his daughter, who can not see the charm in the prospect of settling in Amsterdam. She prefers to fall in love with a Balinese prince, betting on the local half of her heritage. The historical background is the Dutch consolidation of their rule in the region that later became Indonesia. Borneo is yet hardly under control. A definition of British and Dutch interests and boundaries was still to come. Aceh was rebelling against Dutch rule, as they would later against Javanese rule. Bali is still independant and fiercely determined to remain so. That's why the Balinese prince shows up in Borneo, he is looking for gunpowder. Which in turn quickens Almayer's downfall, since the colonial rulers see him as an unreliable subject who trades with insurgents. A problem with the novel is the total lack of redeeming features in the damned fool Almayer. He is so much not a positive hero, that his failure fails to touch us as tragedy. But the man is real. The world is full of such people. Conrad's start into the writer's career was not the top of his achievements, but for me, it is one of my favorites among his works. This is partly due to a personal relation to the locations.

The hypocrisy of the white man

This excellent short novel is very representative for Joseph Conrad's work. Its main theme of the foolish, dangerous and deadly dreams of colonialists was also treated in his short story `An Outpost of Progress' (in 'Tales of Unrest') and in his masterpiece `Heart of Darkness'. The main character in this story dreams of finding a mysterious treasure in order to be able to return to his homeland and live for the rest of his life in `untold wealth'. For the indigenous, he is not more than another `white man that comes to us to trade, with prayers on his lips and loaded guns in his hands.' He shows `the same manifestations of love and hate and of sordid greed chasing the uncertain dollar in all its multifarious and vanishing shapes.' He is bitterly confronted with `the savage mood which civilization could never destroy'. For Conrad, `no two beings understand each other', so certainly not the `savage' and the `white man'. More, the `uncompromising sincerity of Malay kinsmen' stands in sharp contrast with `the sleek hypocrisy of white people with their vivid but foolish dreams'. This novel has not the same high standard as `Heart of Darkness', but should not be missed.

A powerful tale of the East

Loosely based on the life of a Dutch merchant, setting up a trading post along a river in the interior of Borneo, Conrad's novel 'Almayer's Folly' is actually about man's alienation from his environment and eventually himself.Written during the heyday of western imperialism, when the great powers of Europe subjected the tropics to their rule, the tale of Almayer explores how the tropics actually devoured the individual westerner.The main character of the book is a man obsessed. Chasing a dream, he completely loses touch with reality. Although on the surface it may seem that he is a white man gone native, Almayer hasn't got a clue what he is dealing with. He is blind to the schemings of his Malay wife and equally oblivious to the fact that his daughter is drifting away from him. Admittedly, the book has 'orientalist' overtones but, then, Joseph Conrad is both a man of his time and a master of poweful prose, not a politically-correct scholar. The stereotypical mystique of Asia and the inscrutable oriental are exploited as a literary means to descend into the deeper levels of man's psyche. Just like the 'true heart' of Borneo and its inhabitants is hidden under layer upon layer of deceiving images, so is the core of each and every individual. The scariest place to travel is not the interior of an Indonesian Island, but the inner reaches of our own soul.Almayer's Folly is one of the best novels ever written. Not only because of the author's masterful portrayals of character, but also due his astounding command of English. It is hard to believe that Conrad's first and second language were Polish and French: he only learned English as an adult. It is this combination of psychological understanding and extraordinary use of language that make him into a literary genius.