Almayer's FollySet in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, Conrad's first novel tells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice. |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdulla Almayer Almayer's Folly Almayer's house amongst answered Arabs asked Babalatchi bank Batavia boat breath brig Bulangi bushes canoe cheroot close courtyard creek curtain Dain Maroola Dain's danger dark daughter dead doorway Dutch Dyaks eyes face father fear feet felt fire Ford forest forget gaze girl glanced godowns guilders gunwale hand head hear heard heart jetty Jim-Eng Lakamba lieutenant light Lingard lips listened live looked Macassar Mahmat Malay master morning mother murmur muttered night Nina Nina's Orang Blanda paddle Pantai prau Rajah Reshid rice river rose round Sambir sarong savage seemed settlement shadow shoulder shouted side sigh silent slave sleeping slowly smile sound speak spoke stood suddenly talk Taminah tell thought took trade trees Tuan turned verandah Vinck voice waiting walked watched whispered white man's woman women words young
Popular passages
Page 71 - And will you be long away, Dain?" asked Nina, in a low voice. "Long!" exclaimed Dain. "Would a man willingly remain long in a dark place? When I am not near you, Nina, I am like a man that is blind. What is life to me without light?
Page 3 - He liked to look at it about the time of sunset; perhaps because at that time the sinking sun would spread a glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai, and Almayer's thoughts were often busy with gold; gold he had failed to secure; gold the others had secured — dishonestly, of course —or gold he meant to secure yet, through his own honest exertions, for himself and Nina.
Page 112 - She lived like the tall palms amongst whom she was passing nowj seeking the light, desiring the sunshine, fearing the storm, unconscious of either. The slave had no hope, and knew of no change. She knew of no other sky, no other water, no other forest, no other world, no other life. She had no wish, no hope, no love, no fear except of a blow...
Page 195 - Now she was gone his business was to forget, and he had a strange notion that it should be done systematically and in order. To Ali's great dismay he fell on his hands and knees, and, creeping along the sand, erased carefully with his hand all traces of Nina's footsteps. He piled up small heaps of sand, leaving behind him a line of miniature graves right down to the water.
Page 165 - ... reflected from the ground. On three sides of the clearing, appearing very far away in the deceptive light, the big trees of the forest, lashed together with manifold bonds by a mass of tangled creepers, looked down at the growing young life at their feet with the sombre resignation of giants that had lost faith in their strength. And in the midst of them the merciless creepers clung to the big trunks in cable-like coils, leaped from tree to tree, hung in thorny festoons from the lower boughs...
Page 10 - And don't you kick because you're white ! " he shouted, suddenly, not giving the surprised young man the time to say a word. "None of that with me! Nobody will see the colour of your wife's skin. The dollars are too thick for that, I tell you ! And mind you, they will be thicker yet before I die.
Page 171 - She drew back her head and fastened her eyes on his in one of those long looks that are a woman's most terrible weapon; a look that is more stirring than the closest touch, and more dangerous than the thrust of a dagger, because it also whips the soul out of the body, but leaves the body alive and helpless, to be swayed here and there by the capricious tempests of passion and desire...
Page 55 - Nina saw those eyes fixed upon her with such an uncontrolled expression of admiration and desire that she felt a hitherto unknown feeling of shyness, mixed with alarm and some delight, enter and penetrate her whole being. Confused by those unusual sensations she stopped in the doorway and instinctively drew the lower part of the curtain across her face, leaving only half a rounded cheek, a stray tress, and one eye exposed, wherewith to contemplate the gorgeous and bold being so unlike in appearance...
Page 187 - ... he was uneasily conscious of something in her he could not understand. Doubtless she had the wisdom of perfect beings. He sighed. He felt something invisible that stood between them, something that would let him approach her so far, but no farther. No desire, no longing, no effort of will or length of life could destroy this vague feeling of their difference.
Page 4 - The tree swung around slowly, amid the hiss and foam of the water, and soon getting free of the obstruction began to move down stream again, rolling slowly over, raising upwards a long, denuded branch, like a hand lifted in mute appeal to heaven against the river's brutal and unnecessary violence. Almayer's interest in the fate of that tree increased rapidly. He leaned over to see if it would clear the low point below. It did; then he drew back, thinking that now its course was free down to the sea,...