Almayers Folly was Conrads outstanding debut novel as well as exploring the culture of a part of the world previously unknown to English fiction it showed immense sophistication in its handling of narrative timeshifts and point of view. Hailed as a writer of genius by contemporary reviewers Conrad returned to the same riverine settlement in Borneo in his second novel An Outcast of the Islands. Set some 15 years earlier this prequel to Almayers Folly tells how Lingard lost his monopoly of trade