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Joseph Conrad possessed a matchless gift for embodying life as it is lived under extreme physical and psychological pressure. Victory, his last masterpiece, tells the story of Axel Heyst, a radically isolated, philosophically minded soul living apart on a remote Pacific island,... Read Full Overview

One of the most powerful and psychologically compelling novels from Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation... Read Full Overview

Victory - An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad is a classic psychological tale. Through a business trip, Axel Heyst ends up on an island in Indonesia, with a Chinese assistant Wang. Heyst pays visits to a nearby island when a female band is playing at a hotel owned by Mr. Schomberg... Read Full Overview

One of the greatest English writers of the 19th century was a Polish-born man who couldn't even speak English fluently until he had entered adulthood. Nevertheless, Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) went on to have a well-regarded literary career that bridged Romanticism and Modernism... Read Full Overview

Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. It tells the story of Axel Heyst who, damaged by his dead father's nihilistic philosophy, has retreated from the world of commerce and colonial exploration to live alone on the island of Samburan. But... Read Full Overview

Cut off from civilization except for the monthly passing of a trading vessel, Axel Heyst and Lena, the girl from a traveling Ladies' Orchestra, live a strange life on the deserted South Sea island of Samburan.

The world is a bad dog. It will bite you if you give it a chance, maintains Axel Heyst, a Swedish drifter in the Pacific islands. Heyst's attempt to remain aloof from the rest of humanity is challenged by his compassion for Lena, a destitute orchestra girl. Defying Lena's abusive... Read Full Overview

Set in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, Victory tells the story of a disillusioned Swede, Axel Heyst, who rescues Lena, a young English musician, from the clutches of a brutish German hotel owner. Seeking refuge at Heyst's remote island retreat on Samburan, the couple is... Read Full Overview

Once regarded as comparatively minor amongst Conrad's works, Victory has grown in reputation. Its depiction of the central character, Axel Heyst, and his renunciation of the world, is influenced by Conrad's reading of Schopenhauer.

Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. It tells the story of Axel Heyst who, damaged by his dead father's nihilistic philosophy, has retreated from the world of commerce and colonial exploration to live alone on the island of Samburan. But... Read Full Overview

Victory (also published as Victory: An Island Tale) is a psychological novel by Joseph Conrad first published in 1915, through which Conrad achieved "popular success." The New York Times, however, called it "an uneven book" and "more open to criticism than most of Mr. Conrad's... Read Full Overview

Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity once more... Read Full Overview

Published in 1915, Victory: An Island Tale holds a special place in Conrad's later writings as a bold experiment in genre. The novel variously draws upon realism, allegory and melodrama to explore large themes: commitment and solidarity, the individual's relationship to society... Read Full Overview

Conrad was born on 3 December 1857 in Berdychiv (Polish: Berdycz w), Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire; the region had once been part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was the only child of Apollo Korzeniowski-a writer, translator, political activist, and would-be... Read Full Overview

At the time the story begins, Heyst is about thirty-five years old. The last vestiges of youth are gone from his face. In the fullness of his physical development, with his bald head and "long red-gold moustaches," he presents a "broad and martial appearance."

'Victory, don't forget, has come out of my innermost self.'Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. Sub-titled 'An Island Tale', it tells the story of Axel Heyst who, damaged by his dead father's nihilistic philosophy, has retreated from the... Read Full Overview