Books

1896. [Shakespeare & Co. copy] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. 1 page preliminary undated ads. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Conrad's second book, preceded only by (and containing many of the same characters as) ALMAYER'S FOLLY. After Edward Garnett (then a reader at Unwin's) had "discovered" Conrad and had published his first book, he worked very closely with Conrad on this one -- so much so that some biographers have suggested that Garnett's name should have appeared on the title page as co-author. AN OUTCAST is considered the middle volume of Conrad's only trilogy; the third volume, which he began right after AN OUTCAST but could not complete for almost a quarter of a century, was ultimately published in 1920 as THE RESCUE. The front endpaper of this copy bears the inkstamp of "Shakespeare and Company / Sylvia Beach Whitman / Kilometer Zero Paris". This legendary English-language bookshop / free library / publisher was run by Sylvia Beach from 1919 to 1941…

An Outcast of the Islands is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1896. The book follows the story of Peter Willems, a Dutch-Belgian tramp with a troubled past, who finds himself involved in treacherous local politics in a colonial setting.