Almayer's Folly

Conrad's first novel, published in 1895, is set at Sambir on a Borneo river under Dutch colonial trade. Kaspar Almayer, a failed European trader married to a Malay woman of Sulu descent, pins his hopes on a rich find and on his daughter Nina, whom he wants to take to Europe. Nina, raised between two worlds, is drawn to Dain Maroola, a Balinese prince running guns past the Dutch. The river station, the unfinished house called Almayer's Folly, and competing Arab, Malay, and Dutch interests close in. The novel is a colonial tragedy about a man who cannot leave and a daughter who will not stay.

Bound in grey cloth blocked with a black design. Slipcase green or dark blue.