New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-03

The Book That Launched Him on
a Brilliant Career.

AT.MAYER'S FOLLY. A Story OF an East
ern River. By Joseph Conrad. Emo' PIP
27G The Macmillan Company
The curious thing about this reprint OF
q hook first published in 1898 is that we
should have had to wait for it so long
Is II that after so many years of artistic
effort Mr. Conrad still remains a type
OF esoteric genius, the object OF mar
row cult rather than of widespread
enthusiasm? It is hard to find any
other answer TO the riddle embodied IN
the fact that in seventeen years one OF
the finest Of his books should have been
brought out in only two editions. How
ever, let us hope that "Almayers Folly
will now obtain the popularity when It
seems hitherto to have missed. The
reader TO whom il is unfamiliar would
do well to take up with 1t that book by
the same author, "A Personal Record,
which the Harpers published two or
three months ago. There Mr.. Conrad
tells how he wrote his first book and
gives us Key W kHe SSNiSt Va i'S ~
traordinary charm.
1t takes him many pages to reclte this
portion OF his biography, and the tale Is
too complex. too subtle, to be summar-
lied here. But one may restate easily
enough the main point which is that
"Almayer's Folly like so many flne
works Of art is the fruit OF experience.
The book is well described in its sub
title as the story Of an Eastern river.
He began work upon it in London
lodging house began in the indolent
mood of 4 sailor ashore. He was very
far he tells us, from thinking OF writing
"a story. but the man Almayer came
drifting back into his mind, and with
the memory ~ him strange pictures
formed themselves against the London
fog. Thus he recalled his hero:
had seen him for the first time, some
four wears before, from the bridge OF a
steamer moored TO q rickety little wharf
forty miles up, more or less, q Borneail
river II was very early morning. and -
slight mist-sn opalne mist az In Bess-
borough Gardens, only without the neSy
rays Of the red London sun-promlsed To
turn presently into wooliy FOG; BarrlnS
a small dug-out canoe on the river there
was nothing moving within sight. l had
Just come up yawning from my cabin. The
serang and the Malay crew We're overhaul
ing the cargo chains and trying tho
winches: their voices sounded subdued on
the deck below. and their movements were
languld. That tropical daybreak was chilly.
Tho Malay quarternaster, coming up 10 get
something from the lockers on the bridge,
shivered vis!bly. The forests above and and
he 70
black and dank; wet dripped from the rig
gine upon the tightly stretched deck avn
ing5. and il Was ia the middle Of a snug
dering yawn that I caught sight or Al
mayer lie was moving across patch OF
burned grass, blurred. shadowy shape
with the blurred bulk Of house behinai
him n low house OF mats. bamboos, ana
palm-leaves. with a high-Ditched roof or
grass
The picture at this stage is practically
all background. and thus, In sense. 1t
continues. Almayer or his people and
affairs are forever In evidence In tn"
novel, but they draw their interest in
great measure from their relation TO tho
river and its life Character counts, and
counts enormously. Almayer is an indi-
vidual if ever there was one, and,
through MI. 'VI!l GU NiA'sAiliAiy INIi'-
trating art. We are brought into poign-
antly close contact with the very souls
of his wife and daughter as we'll as with
those Of the native chiefs, traders. and
so on, who contribute so heavily TO tho
development Of the plot. But as AL
mayer goes to his wretched doom. 4
plaything in the tolls Of savage in
trigue, and in his family life the victim
Of his own sordid error, the man and his
fate take OH an UNNECESSARILY height
ened significance from their exotic en-
vironment. In his strange and too brief
chapters Of autobiography Mr.. Conrad
alludes TO the fact that ne has been
called both a romantlcist and realist.
The two designations are equally exact
and one is as easily 10 be justified rs the
other. How to define the fusion in him
of both traits is another matter. But We
may hazard the guess that II seemingly
elements interminglo in his
work it Is because he 80 completely takes
his inspiration from life, where realism
and romance are always operating to-
gethcr in perfect harmony
There Is only one word for the gift IT
the bottom OF "Almayer's Folly; only
one word for the source of its weird fss-
and that is the word "clairvoy-
ance" Not for a moment do we think
OF the author rs brilliantly inventive. us
the dramatst building up a rightly bal
anced fabric. We think OF him, rather,
as some incredibly sensitive observer, no
less keen upon the things of the spirit
than upon the richly colored panorama
Of the material world in certain OF It's
BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.