Victory

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Digireads.com Publishing, 2009 - Fiction - 196 pages
'I am glad that I am alive, if, for no other reason, because of the joy of reading this book.'-Jack London. First published in 1915, "Victory" follows the character Axel Heyst, a Swede who renounces the world and lives on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago. He is shaken from his self-imposed isolation, however, after a chance encounter with Lena, a young Englishwoman in a touring ladies' orchestra. Axel comes to her aid when she is accosted by a loutish hotel owner. They seek refuge on his island, and Axel begins to see the value of life as a relationship with Lena unfolds. All too soon, however, three men set on revenge for the hotel owner, arrive on the island. The events that follow spiral into a devastating tragedy, and Conrad ultimately compels readers to decide on what constitutes defeat or victory in this characteristically descriptive, powerful narrative.

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About the author (2009)

Joseph Conrad is recognized as one of the 20th century's greatest English language novelists. He was born Jozef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in the Polish Ukraine. His father, a writer and translator, was from Polish nobility, but political activity against Russian oppression led to his exile. Conrad was orphaned at a young age and subsequently raised by his uncle. At 17 he went to sea, an experience that shaped the bleak view of human nature which he expressed in his fiction. In such works as Lord Jim (1900), Youth (1902), and Nostromo (1904), Conrad depicts individuals thrust by circumstances beyond their control into moral and emotional dilemmas. His novel Heart of Darkness (1902), perhaps his best known and most influential work, narrates a literal journey to the center of the African jungle. This novel inspired the acclaimed motion picture Apocalypse Now. After the publication of his first novel, Almayer's Folly (1895), Conrad gave up the sea. He produced thirteen novels, two volumes of memoirs, and twenty-eight short stories. He died on August 3, 1924, in England.

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