King Rat | Literary Precedents

King Rat Literary Precedents

The name Marlowe strongly suggests this novel's relationship to the works of Joseph Conrad, novels in which the main character, a well-born young Englishman, is tested in order to determine whether or not he is able to live up to his own ideals of honor. The main characters of Lord Jim (1900), Heart of Darkness (1902), and The Secret Sharer (1910) face a moral problem similar to Marlowe's and indeed, each of these novels is narrated by a man named Marlowe, who represents Conrad, as Marlowe represents Clavell.

Conrad's characters are tested either in the African jungle or in Asia, sites either geographically close to, or not unlike, Singapore. Like Clavell's Marlowe, Conrad's young men are tested under the most extreme conditions.