An Outcast Of The Islands Author:Joseph Conrad An Outcast of the Islands is typical Conrad, both in its structure and content. The interpenetration of man and nature is constant. Both fuse into an almost indistinguishable landscape, each taking on the coloration of the other. And at the end, the jungle reclaims its own. Man has ventured but briefly into the light, a light that he tempera... more »mentally and spiritually cannot abide. The end is implicit in the beginning. But in between lies the drama of his fitful struggle against the dark demons that possess his soul.
This novel is a dark journey, but a rewarding one. In it, Conrad sharpened his tools and forged his craft. He emerged master of a style distinguished by an extraordinary verbal felicity wedded to a content that was uniquely his own. He would create a world -- a modern world -- of spiritually crippled men paralyzed by their secret guilts and passions. In recording their abortive struggle back to life, Conrad magnificently achieved his design and purpose. Failure is relatively unimportant; the struggle is all. For in his struggle, in the release of his creative energies, lies the true test and measure of man.« less