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mayam330's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
margot_meanders's review against another edition
4.0
I am rereading all Conrad's works this year, because it HAS been a while. Rereading is a good measure of how we progressed in terms of personal growth, whether what we see and notice is different
Starting with Almayer's Folly, a story about a Dutch trader and his failed ambitions but also so much more.
Kaspar Almayer is a trader in the jungle of Borneo who has never seen his native Europe but idealises it as a a paradise almost. Tom Lingard, known as the King of the seas, uses him for his purposes: marries Almayer off to a Malay girl he rescued, and promises a gold mine of riches, for the finding of which he uses Almayer's money. Except he eventually disappears never to be heard from again. Almayer is left to his own schemes- sends his daughter Nina to Singapore, dreams of the British, gets driven out of business by an Arab, finds himself in conflict with the local chief Rajah Lakamba but most of all he wants to take Nina and go live in his perfect Europe. The Dutch don't really care about him. All his ventures fail, and it's symbolised by his unfinished house- his "folly". Then he finds an ally in Dain Maroola, a noble from Bali but Dain and Nina fall in love, which puts an end to Almayer's plans. All he's got left is his unfinished house- Folly.
The novel is adventurous. Conrad wanted to carve out a new region in fiction in the style of Kipling and Stevenson. It signals his later themes and is in itself a story with complex human relations and Conrad's understanding of human nature. Almayer has strong prejudices against marrying Lingard's adopted daughter, he also considers Dain not good enough for his daughter. He doesn't understand his wife and he hates her. On her part, Mrs Almayer has her own perspective on being "saved" by Lingard. She has a voice and agency to show what it actually meant for her and it's not as simple as bring rescued. Almayer's makes the mistake of not asking why Nina, his daughter of mixed roots, ends up escaping Singapore and he seems unable to imagine what life must have been for her there, even when he gets hints about it. Nina is a strong character, she carves a path for herself. Arabs, Malays, Europeans share similar vices, desires and ambitions in this story. It's possible to sympathise with Almayer too and it's always striking to me how Conrad's characters are strangers to their own cultures, in this case Nina and Almayer and Almayer's wife, although both Nina and her mother quickly adapt, whereas Almayer cannot. Thetrs a multitude of perspectives and each character is driven by their one desires. Almayer cannot escape , for Nina there's still a chance.
It's not a novel to be overlooked in my opinion. Nina has always been a favourite of mine.
Starting with Almayer's Folly, a story about a Dutch trader and his failed ambitions but also so much more.
Kaspar Almayer is a trader in the jungle of Borneo who has never seen his native Europe but idealises it as a a paradise almost. Tom Lingard, known as the King of the seas, uses him for his purposes: marries Almayer off to a Malay girl he rescued, and promises a gold mine of riches, for the finding of which he uses Almayer's money. Except he eventually disappears never to be heard from again. Almayer is left to his own schemes- sends his daughter Nina to Singapore, dreams of the British, gets driven out of business by an Arab, finds himself in conflict with the local chief Rajah Lakamba but most of all he wants to take Nina and go live in his perfect Europe. The Dutch don't really care about him. All his ventures fail, and it's symbolised by his unfinished house- his "folly". Then he finds an ally in Dain Maroola, a noble from Bali but Dain and Nina fall in love, which puts an end to Almayer's plans. All he's got left is his unfinished house- Folly.
The novel is adventurous. Conrad wanted to carve out a new region in fiction in the style of Kipling and Stevenson. It signals his later themes and is in itself a story with complex human relations and Conrad's understanding of human nature. Almayer has strong prejudices against marrying Lingard's adopted daughter, he also considers Dain not good enough for his daughter. He doesn't understand his wife and he hates her. On her part, Mrs Almayer has her own perspective on being "saved" by Lingard. She has a voice and agency to show what it actually meant for her and it's not as simple as bring rescued. Almayer's makes the mistake of not asking why Nina, his daughter of mixed roots, ends up escaping Singapore and he seems unable to imagine what life must have been for her there, even when he gets hints about it. Nina is a strong character, she carves a path for herself. Arabs, Malays, Europeans share similar vices, desires and ambitions in this story. It's possible to sympathise with Almayer too and it's always striking to me how Conrad's characters are strangers to their own cultures, in this case Nina and Almayer and Almayer's wife, although both Nina and her mother quickly adapt, whereas Almayer cannot. Thetrs a multitude of perspectives and each character is driven by their one desires. Almayer cannot escape , for Nina there's still a chance.
It's not a novel to be overlooked in my opinion. Nina has always been a favourite of mine.
beachy123's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
haazex's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic! Conrad's first novel has some amazing passages weaving the human psyche in unison with the dynamics of the surrounding nature. A pleasure to read.
kurtwombat's review against another edition
4.0
I love Joseph Conrad. Everything is so vivid. His words are like painting before photography. Detailed as if under a spotlight with an array of colors and shades that make each image extraordinary. I think back to different scenes from his books as if they were paintings I once saw. The first time this happened was at the beginning of HEART OF DARKNESS when the narrator describes the descent of dusk over London and the Thames—that vanishing light is forever fixed in my mind. I think reading Conrad as a youngster formed just how I read—I tend to read slowly—inspiring a love for cerebral cinematography that can absorb time versus quick TV images that don’t last. Each story is a journey through someone’s personal struggles representing great big themes: colonization, alienation, isolation. Set against giant landscapes, the sea or mysterious lands or both, that dwarf our struggles. His characters are clear and sharp and strongly driven by a tangled crosshatch of motivations. English not his native language, Conrad takes to it like a religious convert. I hold an extra appreciation for that. His sentences can sometimes be very long but they submerge you into the story and I never feel there is anything that should be cut. What I don’t like is that he can come off as racist. The great Chinua Echebe famously took Joseph Conrad to task for this. With Conrad’s mind formed in the 19th century, difficult to escape the limitations of his era. His view of non-white cultures is often dismissive and diminishing—at the same time he doesn’t speak very well of anybody. There are great forces that pit us against each other. We are all flailing helplessly beneath a limitless sky—fighting over the stones at our feet.
That long-windedness aside—I enjoyed reading Conrad’s first book Allmayer’s Folly as a template for the rest of his writing. It stands on its own—creating a vivid backwater world of corrupt traders and broken dreams. Vivid in my memory—the story takes place entirely on a river until near the end when some seek escape by following the river to the sea and stand upon a triangle slip of coast facing the unknown. Solid Conrad.
That long-windedness aside—I enjoyed reading Conrad’s first book Allmayer’s Folly as a template for the rest of his writing. It stands on its own—creating a vivid backwater world of corrupt traders and broken dreams. Vivid in my memory—the story takes place entirely on a river until near the end when some seek escape by following the river to the sea and stand upon a triangle slip of coast facing the unknown. Solid Conrad.
nucleareaction's review against another edition
4.0
Oh, white people. When will you learn to leave other cultures alone?
paul_cornelius's review against another edition
4.0
The thing is that neither Almayer, his daughter, Nina, or his wife fit in. Neither does his would-be partner, Dain. Everyone lacks connection in this short novel. But none more than Almayer himself. He is a misfit in the most literal sense of the word. Uncomfortable with the natives, his family, or his sponsor, he lives his life adrift. As the novel puts it when describing the building of his new house on the first page, the decay has set in even as it is being built. And Almayer all but rushes to that eventual fate, while those around him disintegrate and disappear from the text and our consciousness.
galuf84's review
4.0
Lord Jim still is my favorite but this book (though his first) was far better than Heart of Darkness or Victory.
dalewahl's review against another edition
3.0
This is a sad book, an insightful book, a strange book, and ultimately a good book. The prose is descriptive and beautiful; it does a magnificent job of painting this far off place, just as it does a great job of showing the political, cultural, and social struggles of the time.
I say it is strange because the characters are almost too set in their ways. There is no room for change or development. But they do not feel like caricatures. And maybe that tells us something. About the time certainly, but also about people or at least some of them. There-in lies both the insight and the sadness.
I say it is strange because the characters are almost too set in their ways. There is no room for change or development. But they do not feel like caricatures. And maybe that tells us something. About the time certainly, but also about people or at least some of them. There-in lies both the insight and the sadness.
fearandtrembling's review against another edition
1.0
The language that describes landscapes is dense and rich; the themes of alienation in the externally and inwardly destructive colonial psyche are ripe for further analysis. Perhaps, if I cared enough, I would be interested to note Conrad's Polish heritage and the obsession with Englishness that Almayer has in this book. Conrad is cynical about Almayer (who is Dutch) and the English, but he cannot imagine his Malay characters as anything but savages. Every so often when it feels like he might be able to get past that, he appears to run into a wall--like a conceptual block--and the narrative pulls back to describe how a Malay character was behaving in a way that was typical to his or her race; that is, in a "savage", remote and inscrutable manner. For all the beauty of the language in certain parts of this slim novel, and the complexity of the ideas submerged in the straightforward narrative, the book is ultimately tedious, small-minded, and mean-spirited. This is because of Conrad's orientalism, which despite his talent and skill in crafting a sentence, renders him without imagination. A novel cannot succeed on repetitions of stereotypes.