An Outcast of the Islands

First US edition
(publ. D. Appleton and Company)

An Outcast of the Islands is the second novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1896, inspired by Conrad's experience as mate of a steamer, the Vidar.^[1]

The novel details the undoing of Peter Willems, a disreputable, immoral man who, on the run from a scandal in Makassar, finds refuge in a hidden native village, only to betray his benefactors over lust for the tribal chief's daughter. The story features Conrad's recurring character Tom Lingard, who also appears in Almayer's Folly (1895) and The Rescue (1920), in addition to sharing other characters with those novels. It is considered by many to be underrated as a work of literature.^{[citation needed]} Conrad romanticizes the jungle environment and its inhabitants in a similar style to that of his Heart of Darkness.

This novel was adapted into the film Outcast of the Islands in 1951 by director Carol Reed, featuring Trevor Howard as Willems, Ralph Richardson as Lingard, Robert Morley, and Wendy Hiller.

The work was quoted in T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men ('Life is very long.').

References

^ Curle, Richard; Simmons, Allan H. (2000). "The History of Mr. Conrad's Books". The Conradian. 25 (2): 185–204. ISSN 0951-2314.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

An Outcast of the Islands

An Outcast of the Islands at Project Gutenberg
An Outcast of the Islands at Internet Archive
An Outcast Of The Islands public domain audiobook at LibriVox
An Outcast of the Islands, Study Guide, with plot, characters, critical summary, resources.

Joseph Conrad (works)

Novels and
novellas

Almayer's Folly
An Outcast of the Islands
The Nigger of the "Narcissus"
Heart of Darkness
The End of the Tether
Lord Jim
The Inheritors
Typhoon
Falk
Romance
Nostromo
The Secret Agent
Under Western Eyes
Freya of the Seven Isles
Chance
Victory
The Shadow Line
The Arrow of Gold
The Rescue
The Nature of a Crime
The Rover
Suspense

Short stories

"The Idiots"
"An Outpost of Progress"
"The Lagoon"
"Karain: a Memory"
"Youth"
"Amy Foster"
"The Secret Sharer"
"Because of the Dollars"
"The Tale"

Other works

The Inheritors (1901)
Romance (1903)
A Personal Record
Last Essays

Adaptations

Victory (1919)
Lord Jim (1925)
The Silver Treasure (1926)
Dangerous Paradise (1930)
Sabotage (1936)
Victory (1940)
Outcast of the Islands (1951)
Lord Jim (1965)
The Rover (1967)
The Duellists (1977)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Secret Agent (1992)
Heart of Darkness (1993)
Victory (1996)
The Secret Agent (1996)
Nostromo (1997 TV)
Gabrielle (2005)
Almayer's Folly (2011)
Spec Ops: The Line (2012 video game)
Hanyut (2014)
Secret Sharer (2014)
The Secret Agent (2016)
The Young One (2016)

v t e Joseph Conrad's Lingard Trilogy
Characters	Thomas Lingard
Almayer's Folly (1895)	Almayer's Folly (2011) Hanyut (2012/2016)
An Outcast of the Islands (1896)	Outcast of the Islands (1951)
The Rescue (1920)	The Rescue (1929)