Almayer’s Folley is written by Joseph Conrad, and is set in eastern Borneo during the 1880s. This was his first novel. This fictional novel draws on the conflicts between imperial Europe and the colonized East Indies. There are several Malay terms and historical references within the text. Joseph Conrad was a seaman and author who visited Singapore and the Raffles Hotel in 1887. He described the hotel in the novel ‘End of Tether’ as being ‘airy as a birdcage’.
