Victory: An Island TaleIn Victory (1915) Conrad returns to the Malay Archipelago, to the setting of his first mature novel, Lord Jim, and in Axel Heyst he creates a hero who is in many ways similar to Jim, a noble altruist destroyed by his ideals. Heyst is emotionally crippled by the influence of his dead father, a sceptical philosopher who has bequeathed to Heyst an attitude to life summed up in the father's dying words: 'Look on - make no sound.' Despite this injunction Heyst allows himself to become inextricably involved with an English Cockney girl whom he rescues from Giancomo's Travelling Ladies' Orchestra and carries off to his isolated retreat on the island of Samburan. His action incurs the fatal wrath of Schomberg, the island's innkeeper, who sends in pursuit of Heyst three demonic strangers whose invasion of his island paradise leads rapidly to the novel's violent and tragic close. Victory was the first of Conrad's novels to be completed after the commercial success of Chance (1914) had transformed Conrad's fortunes and made him internationally famous. It is a more complex example of the literary form which Conrad evolved for Lord Jim: a story of action and high adventure coexisting with an exhaustive study of the psychology of the central character. |
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Page 67
... watched Heyst out of the corner of his eye . Towards the unconscious object of his enmity he preserved a distant Lieutenant - of - the- Reserve demeanour . Nudging certain of his customers with his elbow , he begged them to observe what ...
... watched Heyst out of the corner of his eye . Towards the unconscious object of his enmity he preserved a distant Lieutenant - of - the- Reserve demeanour . Nudging certain of his customers with his elbow , he begged them to observe what ...
Page 184
... exist- ence , otherwise so enigmatically remote to his mind , and containing unexpected possibilities of good and evil , which had to be watched for with prudence and care . III THAT morning , as on all the others of 184 VICTORY.
... exist- ence , otherwise so enigmatically remote to his mind , and containing unexpected possibilities of good and evil , which had to be watched for with prudence and care . III THAT morning , as on all the others of 184 VICTORY.
Page 357
... watched them out of the forest , and now , unless he took the trouble to go back some distance and fetch a consider- able circuit inland over the clearing , he was bound to walk out into the open space before the bungalows . Heyst did ...
... watched them out of the forest , and now , unless he took the trouble to go back some distance and fetch a consider- able circuit inland over the clearing , he was bound to walk out into the open space before the bungalows . Heyst did ...
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Common terms and phrases
Alfuro arms asked believe boat breath bungalow chair Chinaman Chink Conrad course dark Davidson door doorway dream eyes face faint feeling fellow felt Flores Sea Ford Madox Ford frightened gaze gentleman girl glance gleam gone governor hand head heard Heyst hotel-keeper island Java Sea jetty JOHN BATCHELOR Jones Joseph Conrad Lena light lips looked Lord Jim Martin matter mean mind Morrison moved murmured mysterious never night Norman Sherry Nostromo Number once Pedro perhaps Ricardo round Samburan Schom Schomberg schooner secretary seemed seen shadow shoulders side sight silence smile sort sound Sourabaya speak staring stood strange suddenly surprised table d'hôte talk tell Tesmans There's thing thought tion told tone Tony Tanner turned understand verandah voice walked Wang Wang's watched wharf What's whispered woman wonder words Zangiacomo