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Cover of An Outcast of the Islands

Adventure

An Outcast of the Islands

by Joseph Conrad

Disgraced in a scandal, a Dutch clerk flees to a river settlement on Borneo, where he is tempted by a native beauty.

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First published
1896
Length
105,947 words
Reading time
About 7 hr 22 min
Language
English (UK)

About the book

Peter Willems is a successful clerk in a Dutch East Indies trading company until he’s caught for embezzlement. He turns to Tom Lingard, his erstwhile benefactor, who sends him to work in a commercial outpost on a river settlement. There, Willems meets a young and beautiful native girl. Overwhelmed by this encounter, he’s tempted to turn on his employer.

An Outcast of the Islands is Joseph Conrad’s second novel. It was published in 1896, just one year after his literary debut, Almayer’s Folly . Surprisingly, despite sharing the same setting and several characters, it’s not a sequel, but rather takes place about 15 years earlier. One of the main supporting characters, Tom Lingard, also appears in one of Conrad’s later novels, The Rescue . Collectively, these three works are sometimes referred to as the Lingard Trilogy .

First published 1896; the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 105,947 words arranged in 35 navigable sections.

About the author

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) is described by Wikidata as Polish-British writer (1857–1924), with citizenship or national association recorded as Russian Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, and Second Polish Republic.

Recorded occupations include writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, science fiction writer, and autobiographer. Languages recorded for Joseph Conrad include English and Polish. The structured record associates Joseph Conrad with modernist literature. Wikidata lists The Lagoon, The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Amy Foster, and Typhoon among Joseph Conrad's notable works. Open Library identifies Heart of Darkness as a leading work in its author record. Open Library catalogs 5571 works under this author record. The Read4Max catalog currently includes A Personal Record, Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, Chance, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, and Nostromo under Joseph Conrad's authorship.

1857–1924

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • Psychological fiction
  • Clerks
  • Europeans
  • Trading companies
  • Betrayal
  • Lingard, Tom (Fictitious character)
  • Southeast Asia

Table of contents

Open reader
Show all 35 sections
  1. Epigraph
  2. Dedication
  3. Author’s Note
  4. An Outcast of the Islands
  5. Part I
  6. I
  7. II
  8. III
  9. IV
  10. V
  11. VI
  12. VII
  13. Part II
  14. I
  15. II
  16. III
  17. IV
  18. V
  19. VI
  20. Part III
  21. I
  22. II
  23. III
  24. IV
  25. Part IV
  26. I
  27. II
  28. III
  29. IV
  30. V
  31. Part V
  32. I
  33. II
  34. III
  35. IV
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