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    Victory
    Victory
    Victory
    Ebook431 pages7 hours

    Victory

    By Joseph Conrad

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Victory was written in the year 1915 by Joseph Conrad. This book is one of the most popular novels of Joseph Conrad, and has been translated into several other languages around the world.

    This book is published by Booklassic which brings young readers closer to classic literature globally.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooklassic
    Release dateJul 7, 2015
    ISBN9789635271078
    Author

    Joseph Conrad

    Polish-born Joseph Conrad is regarded as a highly influential author, and his works are seen as a precursor to modernist literature. His often tragic insight into the human condition in novels such as Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent is unrivalled by his contemporaries.

    Read more from Joseph Conrad

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    Reviews for Victory

    4/5

    202 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      In some ways Joseph Conrad makes SInclair Lewis look like Theodore Drieser
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 2/5
      "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.
    • 4/5

      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Victory (sometimes published as Victory: An Island Tale) is a psychological novel by Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924), first published in 1915. Through its publication, Conrad achieved popular success. The novel is seen as a highly complex allegorical work, with a narrative structure and psychological development laying the basis for the modern novel. Victory is initially somewhat difficult to follow because of the shifting narrative and temporal perspective. Part 1 of the book is written from the viewpoint of a sailor, Part 2 an omniscient perspective ofthe main character, Part 3 from an interior perspective of the main character, and Part 4 from the perspective of an omniscient narrator. The novel is very rich in literary allusions, and an annotated edition, such as by the Oxford University Press is recommended.Like many of Conrad's novels, Victory is set in the Indonesian archipelago, then the Dutch Indies. The story is fairly straight forward, although the narrative develops slowly. Axel Heyst, a Swede, resides on the virtually uninhabited island where a business venture failed. During a holiday trip visiting another island, he meets and unhappy young English woman, who is attached to a music band. They steal away together. This angers and frustrates the owner of the hotel, Mr Schomberg, whose wife is a hovering presence in the background. Out of spite, Schomberg puts three desperados, Mr Jones, Ricardo and their servant on Heyst's trail, suggesting that Heyst guards a hoard of money. The three men, ruthless, sail to the island, but Mr Jones idea of finding Heyst alone, and an easy prey, runs completely awry. On the island, Jones meets his nemesis.The novel is beautifully written, and each character fits perfectly into the plot. The psychology of each character is very convincing, despite a slight sense og exaggeration. The plot and the outcome of the story are very compelling. Various elements and characters of the story suggest a strong relation between the book and Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

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    Victory - Joseph Conrad

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