The damned of the islands (novel)
The damned of the islands , English original title An Outcast of the Islands , is a novel by Joseph Conrad from 1896.
It is preceded by a quote from Calderón's drama Das Leben ein Traum (Act I, Scene II) as an epigraph : Pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido (“So it is the greatest crime of man to have been born”).
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The authorized officer Peter Willems, who works in Makassar and is considered capable and cunning, is convicted of embezzling funds through an intrigue. His employer Hudig fires him and his wife Joanna, whom he has only met with self-righteous and humiliating behavior, throws him out of the house. Unemployed and deeply offended, the Dutch-born Willems is close to suicide, but is prevented from doing so by Captain Lingard. Years ago, the Englishman Tom Lingard had already taken the young Willems with him as a sailor on his ship and into his care. He offers the hopeless one a second chance and takes him to his trading post in Sambir to work for the captain. Sambir lies on the Pantai River, through whose mouth, which is difficult to navigate, only Lingard knows the way. His monopoly position and his superior technique had enabled the old seaman to regulate the relationships among the various groups in Sambir. These include the blind former pirate Omar with his daughter Aissa, the exiled Malay prince Lakamba and his scheming subordinate Babalatchi, the Lingard-supported Raja Patalolo and Kaspar Almayer, who manages the trading post for the captain. The latter sees in the newcomer Willems only a competitor and therefore excludes him from all deals, as he fears for the fortune that he wants to acquire for himself and his little daughter Nina. Disappointed and bitter, Willems falls in love with Aissa and meets her regularly. Babalatchi, who has long been waiting for an opportunity to break Lingard's supremacy in Sambir, now uses Omar's daughter to get Willems to show the Arab trader Abdulla the way through the Pantai estuary. Lakamba, Babalatchi and Abdulla then take power together.
A few weeks after the coup, Captain Lingard returns to Sambir ignorant and with Willems' wife Joanna and his young son. When Almayer informed him about the new development, he was extremely dismayed, less about the economic consequences than about Willems' betrayal and adultery, whom he greatly appreciated as a foster son and friend during the long time together at sea. When requested by a letter, the captain goes to Willems, who now lives with Aissa at some distance from Sambir. Her father Omar, who refused to tolerate the connection between the white infidel Willems and the Muslim Aissa, has since died. Despite Aissa's attempts to appease him, Lingard beats Willems in a blind rage, but does not kill him, but decides to punish him by saying that he has to stay in Sambir forever. The condemned desperately objects because he sees himself cheated out of his life and existence in the civilized world by Aissa - but in vain. Willems then falls into deep depression, ignores Aissa or verbally abuses her. Lingard quarters Joanna at Almayer's and leaves the trading post.
Almayer, who still fears for his position and his fortune, is now weaving an intrigue to get Willems out of the way. He sends Joanna with three armed escorts and her child to his remote house. When both spouses meet, a catastrophe occurs: Willems is reminded of his marriage vows and inevitably decides in favor of Joanna. Aissa, in turn, sees her worst fear of losing Willems to the world of whites again, come true and wants to defend him against the stranger and her companions with the revolver. While Willems tries to disarm her, Aissa shoots her lover.
Some time later Almayer tells this story to a guest over an evening gin and complains about his hopeless existence: Lingard has disappeared to Europe, Lakamba masters Sambir and Abdulla has taken over all business. Almayer protests that he does not deserve any of this. The guest, however, points out the fact that “the mere fact of its existence is an insult”. With a loud exclamation Almayer wishes the dead Willems to hell, where there is "no mercy and no hope". Only the word "hope" echoes from the dark night.
expenditure
- An Outcast of the Islands . T. Fisher Unwin, London 1896 (first edition).
- An Outcast of the Islands . Critical Edition, ed. by Allan H. Simmons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 9781107126442 (part of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad ).
- The damned of the islands . German by Günther Danehl. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1952 (German first edition); 7th edition: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3596220564 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Conrad: The damned of the islands . 3. Edition. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-10-011311-X , p. 5 .