SOURCE: McLauchlan, Juliet. “Conrad's Heart of Emptiness: ‘The Planter of Malata.’” Conradiana: A Journal of Joseph Conrad Studies XVIII, no. 3 (1986): 180-92.

In the following essay, McLauchlan urges a reassessment of “The Planter of Malata,” perceiving the story to be more complex and successful than critics believe.

Conrad himself called “The Planter of Malata” “a nearly successful attempt at doing a very difficult thing which I would have liked to have made as perfect as lay in my power.”¹ I wish to urge a re-assessment of this story, starting with an attempt to see just what sort of “very difficult thing” is involved, then considering how “successful” the story may be.

It is at once evident that the story embodies several of the most characteristic and interesting of those Conradian preoccupations which are apparent throughout his major fiction: the central figure is a solitary, a man of action and...