Almayer's Folly.

Rating:
Summary: whitebedreamin
Review: Almayer's folly is a powerful beginning to Conrad's second profession, writing. Since the story was written so close to Conrad's adventurous youth (the spring for his most powerful works), it provides the rawest expression of Conrad's views. Almayer, the prototype of Tuan Jim, takes the "leap" when he marries the Malay captive for promised wealth. This transgression drops his character into contact with the cold truths of nature; truths which dispel any artificial illusions or meanings. For Almayer, these illusions entailed sucess and fame in Europe, a place that he had never visited but only heard about from his mother. Superficially, this journey towards inner truth involves a journey into the wilds of Borneo, but,like in future Conrad works, we quickly realize that the journey is inward into the pysche of Almayer. Overall, an excellent introduction to Conrad.

Rating:
Summary: The Family Palm Tree
Review: Almayer's tragedy is that he has become mired in an enterprise which has not paid off. His supply station just doesn't make him rich as he had hoped. In the meantime he has taken a wife, a Malay, and they have a daughter. So Almayer is mired in Malaysia in more ways than one. Almayer dreams of Europe but it is unlikely he will ever return. His fate is to rot in the tropics. Conrads tale of a hopeless colonial exploiter is interesting for its unsentimental, unidealized view of the whole colonial enterprise. It is seen as being a losing situation for both sides. Both cultures suffer. The most tragic figures are those whose heritage is divided between both cultures, exploiter and exploited. (This is something this years Nobel Laureate 2001 V.S. Naipaul, who is often compared to Conrad, writes about.) Conrads book has an appealing exotic side to it as well though. The descriptive writing of the winding rivers and foliage and the entire tropical setting is tempting as it attracts interesting types and seems to offer a life of indolence and easy riches and forbidden pleasures but of course there is a backlash. The plot itself is a winding river with many turns. Not a perfect book but an interesting book to read after having read many of Conrads later books. Conrad in his autobiographical A Personal Record describes his meeting with the character who inspired the fictive Almayer as being the beginning of his writing career. The whole colonial enterprise seemed to be embodied in the attitude and fate of that one isolated figure for him. I guess for that reason we can thank Almayer for existing.

Rating:
Summary: Almayer's rut
Review: An alternative title for this novel could be Amayer's rut.
For that is the situation that the main protagonist in this novel finds himself in. Almayer is a European trader living in a
trading post somewhere in Indonesia or Malaysia with his daughter,a product of mixed marriage.
Almayer dreams of escaping to Europe after making himself wealthy and bringing his daughter with him also.
But as time drags on it becomes obvious that he is going nowhere with his life. He is not getting richer nor is he getting any younger. His own daughter ends up deserting him by eloping with a native who takes her to his own village.
Not being a pure European by blood she realizes that she would never be accepted as an equal among Europeans or the whites.
For this reason she chooses instead to live with the natives.
As for Almayer he remains as he was.
He is an example that one can find everywhere in the world.
Someone stuck in a situation going nowhere but always dreaming of getting out and changing his life.

Rating:
Summary: A Great First Novel
Review: As this is Conrad's first novel, it is not fair to expect the sort of power that illuminates his later works. However, Almayer's Folly is a good, solid novel which shows the potential for Conrad's later greatness. A love story at its heart, Almayer's Folly also provides a last look at classical imperialism and the crossroads of multiple cultures. A short novel, I would heartily recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Almayer and Tales of Unrest
Review: I refer to the Wordsworth Classics printing that contains the short stories 'Tales of Unrest'. 'Almayer's Folly' is an engaging novel that kept my interest despite being read in a haphazard way during travel. My favourite quote from the novel is: 'But a man busy contemplating the wreckage of his past in the dawn of new hopes cannot be hungry whenever his rice is ready.' I enjoy the convoluted paragraphs that Conrad constructs that are surprisingly transparent for the reader - an extraordinary achievement for a man with English as his second language. He really does show the power of the language to richly counterpoint ideas of place and people. What, I wonder, was Conrad's skill with his native language? 'The Return' is a story of such mundane environment that I wondered if I was reading Conrad, but the unfolding of the narrative soon restores my impression. is there some Anna Kavan here? (or is Conrad in Kavan?).

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent, Accessible Book
Review: I was surprised to find out this was Conrad's first book. I expected an awkwardness of a writer refining his skill, but what I found was a captivating, accessible and satisfying story. It has suspense and romance as well as the tragedy that Conrad is known for. I think the young characters and themes make this book far more accessible to a young person than the standard required Conrad novel--Heart of Darkness. Almayer's Folly is an excellent introduction to Conrad's work.

Rating:
Summary: whitebedreamin
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Overblown Romance, Unsympathetic Tragedy
Review: This book by Conrad is a love story and a tragedy. The tragedy of Nina's father, Almayer--and the love story of Dain and Nina.

But Almayer's Folly is not as great a book as Lord Jim or Nigger of the 'Narcissus,' which are among the great masterpieces of literature.

There are several problems with Conrad's novel. For one thing, Almayer is not sympathetic enough to be a tragic hero. He just comes across as a real jerk. For another, the love story of Dain and Nina is so overblown and romantic as to be almost laughable, comic, and ridiculous. The characters and settings are hard to keep straight, as are the motivations of some of the doings.

Frankly, I found it quite difficult to take any of it seriously. It may be that we are just too distant from Conrad's Borneo in time and place, but this is not a problem in some of Conrad's other novels.

This is an inferior piece of literature. (Why the three stars in that case, you ask. Conrad's writing is so skilled in detail, and the setting and some of the other details so interesting, that the novel is absorbing--and mercifully short.)

Rating:
Summary: Overblown Romance, Unsympathetic Tragedy
Review: This book by Conrad is a love story and a tragedy. The tragedy of Nina's father, Almayer--and the love story of Dain and Nina.

But Almayer's Folly is not as great a book as Lord Jim or Nigger of the 'Narcissus,' which are among the great masterpieces of literature.

There are several problems with Conrad's novel. For one thing, Almayer is not sympathetic enough to be a tragic hero. He just comes across as a real jerk. For another, the love story of Dain and Nina is so overblown and romantic as to be almost laughable, comic, and ridiculous. The characters and settings are hard to keep straight, as are the motivations of some of the doings.

Frankly, I found it quite difficult to take any of it seriously. It may be that we are just too distant from Conrad's Borneo in time and place, but this is not a problem in some of Conrad's other novels.

This is an inferior piece of literature. (Why the three stars in that case, you ask. Conrad's writing is so skilled in detail, and the setting and some of the other details so interesting, that the novel is absorbing--and mercifully short.)