An Outcast of the Islands.

Publication date: 1896

  • First Edition
  • Hardcover
  • Used
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Seller: Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, London, United KingdomMaggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA

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Hardcover

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Item description from seller

First edition. 8vo., a very good copy in original vertically-ribbed dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, t.e.g., fore-edges uncut, binding a little shaken but firm. London, T. Fisher Unwin. Conrad's second novel following "Almayer's Folly" of the previous year. This copy displays first printing points in having the misprints "this" for "their" on line 31, p.26; "absolution" for "ablution" p. 110, line 12; "9" omitted from the page number on p. 129, and "hate" for "fate" on p. 356, line 26. That there are so few mistakes is surprising as a fire destroyed the original electrotype plates late in 1895, and the book was hastily reset."An Outcast" was published in March 1896 and the critics were generally kind. The most telling notice appeared in the "Saturday Review" - while the anonymous reviewer praised the work as "perhaps the finest piece of fiction that has been published this year, as 'Almayer's Folly' was one of the finest that was published in 1895", he also wrote "One fault it has, and a glaring fault . Mr. Conrad is wordy; his story is not so much told as seen intermittently through a haze of sentences . He has still to learn the great half of his art, the art of leaving things unwritten". Conrad was deeply upset and wrote to the unknown critic. On May 24th., 1896, he wrote to Edward Garnett: "I wrote to the reviewer. I did! And he wrote to me. He did! And who do you think it is? - He lives in Woking. Guess. Can't tell? I will tell you. It is H.G. Wells. May I be cremated alive like a miserable moth if I suspected it! Anyway he descended from his 'Time-machine' to be as kind as he knew how". Wells had replied that Conrad had "everything for the making of a splendid novelistic dexterity". Two years later Conrad was to tell Wells: "For the last two years (since your review of the 'Outcast' in the 'Saturday Review' compelled me to think seriously of many things till then unseen) I have lived on terms of close intimacy with you, referring to you many a page of my work, scrutinising many sentences by the light of your criticism. You are responsible for many sheets torn up and also for those that remained untorn". Cagle A2(a); Wise 2.…

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Bibliographic details

Title
An Outcast of the Islands.
Author
CONRAD (Joseph).
Publication year
1896
Binding
Hardcover
Edition
1st Edition

Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA

London, United Kingdom

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AbeBooks seller since May 15, 2015

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Established in 1853, Maggs Brothers is one of the world's oldest antiquarian booksellers still operating today. We sell books worldwide through the internet as well as from our regularly published catalogues, and we are delighted to welcome customers to our two premises in Bloomsbury and Mayfair.

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Travel Books, illustrated books, Illuminated manuscripts and miniatures, Bookbindings, Continental books including incunabula, Fine printing, Autographs and Manuscripts, English-language literature of all periods, books of the Far East including Japanese photobooks

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Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA

Maggs Bros. Ltd., 48 Bedford Square
London, United Kingdom WC1B 3DR