Joseph Conrad's Eastern Voyages

The life of Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski reads like an adventure story, an adventure story written by somebody like Joseph Conrad. The young Conrad dreamed of a life at sea and eventually became a British merchant seaman, working his way up from apprentice to captain on classic three-masted square-rigged barques. He would also become one of the most important novelists in the English language, and almost half of his life's work is set in Southeast Asia. Conrad's favorite destination was the vibrant, bustling port of Singapore as well as the remote ports of the Dutch East Indies, and his early works - Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, Lord Jim and The Rescue - are based on the people and places he encountered in his own voyages on the Vidar, a trading vessel that plied the waters of the Indonesian archipelago from its base in Singapore. In Joseph Conrad's Eastern Voyages, Ian Burnet places Conrad's Malay novels into their proper narrative sequence and explores the backstory of his characters helping the reader to visualize the cultural and historical context of Conrad's time in late 19th-century Southeast Asia.

Author and historian Ian Burnet grew up in South Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, and has spent thirty years living, working and travelling in Indonesia and wider Southeast Asia. His fascination for the diverse history and culture of the Indonesian archipelago is reflected in his books Spice Islands, East Indies, Archipelago: A Journey Across Indonesia, Where Australia Collides with Asia, The Tasman Map and his latest work, Joseph Conrad's Eastern Voyages.

Prologue 1 - The voyage of the sailing ship Palestine, 1881 2 - Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski's early life 3 - The voyage of the sailing ship Highland Forest, 1887 4 - The Founding of Singapore 5 - That Great Eastern Port - Singapore 6 - The voyage of the steamship Jeddah, 1880 7 - East Borneo 8 - The voyages of the steamship Vidar, 1887-1888 9 - Macassar 10 - The voyage of the sailing ship Otago, 1888 11 - The voyage into the Heart of Darkness, 1890 12 - The voyages of the sailing ship Torrens, 1891-1893 13 - The voyage of the steamship Adowa, 1894 14 - From Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski to Joseph Conrad 15 - The Rescue - The Man and his Brig 16 - Almayer's Folly - Lingard and Company 17 - An Outcast of the Islands 18 - Almayer's Folly - Of Gold and Gunpowder 19 - The Rescue - The Shore of Refuge 20 - Lord Jim 21 - The Rescue - Claim of Life and Toll of Death Epilogue Timeline Bibliography