Linda Dryden places Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands , 'Karain', and Lord Jim in the context of the nineteenth-century imperial romance. Through the thwarted dreams and aspirations of his central characters she argues that Conrad exposes the empty promises of such fiction and challenges assumptions about the superiority of European imperialists and the imperial venture itself. Using illustrations from and references to many well-known novels of Empire, Dryden demonstrates how Conrad's Malay fiction alludes to the conventions and stereotypes of popular imperial fiction.

Linda Dryden is Lecturer in Cultural Studies in the Department of Print Media, Publishing, and Communication at Napier University, Edinburgh.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Making the Imperial Hero The Possibilities of Romance Almayer's Folly : When Romance Collides with Reality An Outcast of the Islands : Echoes of Romance 'Karain': Constructing the Romantic Subject Lord Jim : The Limitations of Romance Conclusion Bibliography Index