Victory

Written by Joseph Conrad

Narrated by George Guidall

From one of the greatest modern writers in world literature comes a magnificent story of love, adventure and rescue played out against the shimmering South Seas. Alone on a tropical island, a Swedish baron and a beautiful violinist discover the long-lost joys of love. But when two treasure hunters arrive on the beach, the lovers know that evil has invaded their romantic paradise-an evil they are powerless to stop. Victory is a timeless classic that showcases the probing psychological insight, the masterful drama, and the breathtaking atmosphere that have won Joseph Conrad generations of fans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781461809920

Joseph Conrad

Polish author Joseph Conrad is considered to be one of the greatest English-language novelists, a remarkable achievement considering English was not his first language. Conrad’s literary works often featured a nautical setting, reflecting the influences of his early career in the Merchant Navy, and his depictions of the struggles of the human spirit in a cold, indifferent world are best exemplified in such seminal works as Heart of Darkness, Lord JimM, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, and Typhoon. Regarded as a forerunner of modernist literature, Conrad’s writing style and characters have influenced such distinguished writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and George Orwell, among many others. Many of Conrad’s novels have been adapted for film, most notably Heart of Darkness, which served as the inspiration and foundation for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

Reviews for Victory

[stevesbookstuff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Heart of Darkness is where most folks start their journey through Joseph Conrad’s books. I read it ages ago and remember being confused and unimpressed by it. This would have been after viewing the movie Apocalypse Now, which was inspired by Conrad’s book, and when I was likely in my early twenties. I don’t think I’d lived enough of life to understand what made the book or the movie so special to so many others.So, even though I'm much older now, it was with a bit of trepidation that I approached Conrad’s Victory, which I really knew nothing about. I honestly didn’t expect much from this book. Actually, I was half expecting to be let down by this, the last of my Modern Library Classics Challenge books for 2022.Boy was I wrong. I’ll grant you that this book shows its age with some of the pejoratives and racial stereotypes of its 1910s colonial setting. But Conrad’s language is so expressive and so evocative that I was pulled right in.The story is a slow burn that builds into a suspenseful psychological thriller. The setting is colonial Indonesia in the 1910s. Axel Heyst, the book’s protagonist, is an odd man, a loner and a hermit. He has rescued a young woman who he calls Lena from the sexual improprieties of the local hotel keeper, in whose hotel she was a member of a visiting orchestra, trapped under the control of the evil orchestra conductor's wife. Together he and Lena have escaped to the island of Samburan, to the remains of an ill-fated coal company that Heyst once managed. As the story unfolds, a trio of devious characters come to Samburan in pursuit of what they believe to be a fortune belonging to Heyst. The plot twists and turns and in the end the corpses pile up. For a book titled Victory it's hard to determine just who or what has emerged victorious.Conrad builds strong characters with Heyst, Lena and the trio of scoundrels. The dynamics between them all, alone together on the island, are the heart of the book. Lena, who starts out as somewhat of a cypher of a character, in the end defies convention and shows self-assurance and a fierce will. Even Wang, Heyst’s Chinese “house boy” shows original life choices and an individuality that helps move the story along.There is a lot more going on in the book. Heyst’s back story with his cold and unsentimental father is meant to help us understand his wandering spirit and hermit tendencies. I don’t think it has aged as well as the rest of the book.Then there is the shifting narrative. At first the story is told from the perspective of a local sailor, then later through the eyes of Heyst, and still later from the view of an omniscient narrator. So, I really enjoyed this book and turned out to be pleased with the last entry in my Challenge. In fact, with the exception of the autobiography of Disraeli, which I found to be just so-so, I have enjoyed all twelve of the Modern Library books I read this year. It’s easy to see why they are all considered classics.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Conrad managed to develop characters, imperfect, that all drove themselves forward on their own agendas to the story's conclusion- facilitating and enabling it along the way. He manages to keep the reader interested, but not quite on their toes, and the plot is logical and fluid. The setting and atmosphere of the novel is particularly interesting and the sense of urgency, and willingness to read, moves forward from the second third onward. Overall, not a bad book.3 stars.

[soraxtm-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In some ways Joseph Conrad makes SInclair Lewis look like Theodore Drieser

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this novel from the pen of Joseph Conrad - it may be my favorite of his works although Conrad has the knack for writing consistently good novels that makes it hard to rank them. Victory's most striking formal characteristic is its shifting narrative and temporal perspective with the first section from the viewpoint of a sailor, the second from omniscient perspective of Axel Heyst, the third from an interior perspective from Heyst, and the final section. I found the character of Axel interesting primarily due to his complexity. On a superficial level the novel reads like a melodrama more suited to a muddled opera libretto than a serious work of literature. But upon reflection the allegorical and psychological implications of the action, landscape and narrative structure redeem it as a modern novel worthy to be included with the best of Conrad. I am always more impressed when the author can make a serious work of literature appear on the surface, to be merely a "good story" (eg. Moby-Dick). The story line follows: through a business misadventure, the European Axel Heyst ends up living on an island in what is now Indonesia, with a Chinese assistant Wang. Heyst visits a nearby island when a female band is playing at a hotel owned by Mr. Schomberg. Schomberg attempts to force himself sexually on one of the band members, Alma, later called Lena. She flees with Heyst back to his island and they become lovers. Schomberg seeks revenge by attempting to frame Heyst for the "murder" of a man who had died of natural causes and later by sending three desperadoes (Pedro, Martin Ricardo and Mr. Jones) to Heyst's island with a lie about treasure hidden on the island. The ensuing conflict does not end well and has been compared to the ending of an Elizabethan drama where the stage is littered with corpses. The robust romanticism of Axel and Lena's story continues to haunt the reader long after one puts the novel down.Another of my favorite writers, Joan Didion, had this to say about Victory:"I often reread Victory, which is maybe my favorite book in the world… The story is told thirdhand. It’s not a story the narrator even heard from someone who experienced it. The narrator seems to have heard it from people he runs into around the Malacca Strait. So there’s this fantastic distancing of the narrative, except that when you’re in the middle of it, it remains very immediate. It’s incredibly skillful. I have never started a novel — I mean except the first, when I was starting a novel just to start a novel — I’ve never written one without rereading Victory. It opens up the possibilities of a novel. It makes it seem worth doing.” — From a 2006 interview in The Paris Review

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't know anything about this book when I started it other than 2 facts: it was written by the author of The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, and it was on the Guardian's list of 1000 novels everyone should read.

After I started, I quickly found myself engaged in this somewhat odd story about a very odd man, Heyst. A little farther into the story, I went back to find in which category the Guardian's list had placed this book & was surprised to find it was in the "Love" category rather than the "War and Travel" category I had expected. By the end of the book, I understood the placement! If I had to describe it in one sentence, it would be as a cross between his earlier book Heart of Darkness and Romeo and Juliet. Heyst and Lena are surely just as star-crossed as Romeo and Juliet and their end is just as tragic.


While the love story gains in prominence as the plot progresses, the other main theme remains in the forefront. That theme is the power of suggestion or illusion over reality. Schomberg doesn't know or understand Heyst but instead sets a terrible chain of events in motion through his belief in the false image of Heyst he created. Even before Heyst comes to stay at Schomberg's hotel & meets the girl Alma (later named Lena), Schomberg had a long-standing grudge against him. As Conrad puts it:

"Schomberg believed so firmly in the reality of Heyst as created by his own power of false inferences, of his hate, of his love of scandal, that he could not contain a stifled sound of conviction as sincere as most of our convictions, the disguised servants of our passions, can appear at a supreme moment."

This false image of Heyst is then filtered through Ricardo, who adds in his own personality traits, believing all men are like himself. These men are unable to conceive of Heyst as he really is and this inability to recognize reality without the filter of one's own personal experiences is what causes the tragedy.

[cecrow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the first part we get an outsider's view of Axel Heyst's character, actions and motives without being certain who he is or what actually drives him. I found this off-putting until the second part shared Heyst's perspective and we discover he's oblivious to being the centre of so much attention. In retrospect the first seems a case study foreshadowing what will come: Axel finds happiness through distance, but succumbs to connecting with the world through bouts of empathy that reward in the short term but later steer towards disaster. When real danger threatens it remains to be seen what else can stir him to action and whether he will prove to be 'wild' or 'tame'. What happens when the perpetual observer's hand is forced to commit action?The joys of this novel come through in the dialogue, the divulging of character through confession and interplay. Being able to relate personally to Heyst's philosophy didn't hurt my enjoyment any, thrusting me into contemplating how I would react to similar pressures. Heyst lacks self-awareness, not realizing the advantage that he has in his opponents being unable to get a read on him. The disarray this lends to their plans is almost comical as they struggle to answer his supposed moves. The ending was a fitting answer to that comedy, tying everything together.Authors of this period were learning to face the difficult challenge of retaining literary value while appealing to a broader audience and achieving greater sales. I found this to be a wonderful addressing of both objectives, very suspenseful and yet extremely engaging in its character portrayals.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As far as Conrad novels go, this was... well, pretty standard. The big difference is that it's not narrated by 'Marlowe,' so the prose is a little more readable. It's pretty pessimistic, of course. If you're into memorable characters, Lena/Alma's right up there. And I suppose Heyst is meant to be up there, but it's just difficult for me to take seriously a character with such a prominent mustache.

[carterchristian1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The love story is tender and delightful and the suspense at the end when the robbers have invaded the island really keep the reader involved.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

"Victory" is a difficult story for Conrad to relate. His principle characters have always been haunted fellows, such as Kurtz in his jungle hide-away, but here the emphasis seems to be on romance more than adventure, and Conrad struggles to make it work. The problem lies at the heart of his lead, and the fact that it is so difficult to involve the reader in a romance when one of the figures in that romance is such a closed book.

[niecierpek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like Conrad, and this was no exception. The story is typically Conradian in pondering big moral issues. It examines if we are able to escape the society and live far away from the evils of this world. And then, how we deal with evil when confronted by it. The question of what makes one a hero, as pondered by Conrad in other novels, and probably most famously in Lord Jim, surfaces here again as well. The main character is an idealistic gentleman who lives by himself on a small island somewhere in the tropics. Life doesn’t leave him alone though, and through a chain of events he has to confront a situation of life and death.