7 h 5 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 5 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On a river in Borneo, a trader dreams of gold while the life around him slips beyond his grasp.
In Sambir, a hot, crowded trading post, Kaspar Almayer waits for wealth and imagines a rich life in Europe with his daughter, Nina. Captain Tom Lingard's promises shape his hopes. Around him, rival traders and schemers pursue ambitions that leave little room for his dream.
Nina returns from schooling among Europeans in Singapore and faces a choice about where she belongs. Her father wants one future for her; her Malay mother hopes for another. As the bold trader Dain Maroola arrives on dangerous business, Joseph Conrad explores money, illusion, and the barriers between people.
What you’ll discover
- A dream that consumes Follow Almayer's hunger for gold as his imagined future draws him away from the present.
- A daughter between worlds Meet Nina as she weighs her parents' hopes against the life she wants for herself.
- Rivals along the river Enter a trading settlement where Abdulla seeks control and Babalatchi plots to protect his master's power.
- Promises with deep roots Trace Captain Tom Lingard's place in Almayer's past and the hopes that still hold him.
- Conrad's restless first novel Move between past and present in a story of troubled minds and people divided.
Who will love it
For readers who love sea and jungle fiction, character studies, and the early work of a major novelist, with themes of ambition, forbidden love, and families divided by competing dreams.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dreamer waits at the river's end
- One bargain shaped his whole life
- Nina returns from a European school
- Rivals gather around the trading post
- Dreams, money, and the wall between peoples
- A first novel told in a restless way
Who’s who
- Kaspar AlmayerA Dutch trader at Sambir who dreams of finding gold and taking his daughter to a rich life in Europe.
- Nina AlmayerAlmayer's daughter, schooled in Singapore among Europeans, who must decide where she belongs and what life she wants.
- Captain Tom LingardAn English sea captain and trader, Almayer's patron, who knows the hidden rivers and whose promises shape Almayer's life.
- Mrs AlmayerAlmayer's Malay wife, raised by Lingard, who despises her husband and hopes her daughter will stay with her own people.
- Dain MaroolaA young Malay trader of noble birth from Bali, bold and ambitious, who comes to Sambir on dangerous business.
- BabalatchiA former pirate and now chief adviser to Rajah Lakamba, who plots patiently to protect his master's power.
- AbdullaAn Arab trader and Lingard's rival, who wants to take over the river trade.
- TaminahA young slave girl who watches the people around her and has hopes of her own.
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- Audiobook
- 7 h 5 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La follia di Almayer
by Joseph Conrad · 1895
On a Borneo river, Kaspar Almayer dreams of gold and a European future for a daughter with wishes of her own.
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In short
Almayer's Folly is the first novel of Joseph Conrad, published in 1895. Conrad was a Polish-born sailor who had served on ships in the Malay seas, and he wrote the book in English, his third language.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dreamer waits at the river's end
The story opens in Sambir, a small settlement on the Pantai river in Borneo. Kaspar Almayer stands on the veranda of his house, thinking of the wealth he is sure is coming. He is a Dutchman, a trader, and a man who has never quite made his way. His mind lives in the future, in a rich life far from the heat and mud around him.
His house is the sign of his trouble. It is a large new building that he had built in hope of a grand future, but it stands empty and half finished. People in the settlement call it Almayer's Folly, and the name fits the way he lives, with great plans and little to show. The house rots slowly in the damp while he looks past it.
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What is Almayer's Folly about?
It is about Kaspar Almayer, a Dutch trader in a remote Borneo settlement, who dreams of gold and a rich European life for his daughter Nina. Rivals, a bitter marriage, and Nina's own wishes work against him.
What does the title Almayer's Folly mean?
It is the name given to the large, unfinished house Almayer built in the hope of future wealth. The house stands empty and decaying, and it stands for his foolish dreams as a whole.
Is Almayer's Folly a true story?
It is fiction, published in 1895, but Conrad drew on his own years as a sailor in the Malay seas. Almayer was inspired by a trader he knew, though the plot is invented.
The author
Joseph Conrad
1857–1924 · Polish-British novelist
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British writer born in Berdychiv, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He worked at sea before settling in England. He wrote in English. His works include Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907).
More by Joseph Conrad
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