VictorySet 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 soon besieged by three villains dispatched by the enraged hotelier. The arrival on the island paradise of this trio of fiends sets off a terrifying series of events that ultimately ends in catastrophe. |
From inside the book
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Page 167
... Wang was not a common coolie . He had been a servant to white men before . The agreement between him and Heyst consisted in the exchange of a few words on the day when the last batch of the mine coolies was leaving Samburan . Heyst ...
... Wang was not a common coolie . He had been a servant to white men before . The agreement between him and Heyst consisted in the exchange of a few words on the day when the last batch of the mine coolies was leaving Samburan . Heyst ...
Page 168
... Wang came round the house , and standing below , raised up his yellow , thin face . " All finish ? " he asked ... Wang unemotion- ally , and marched off , turning his back on the wharf and the great world beyond , represented by the ...
... Wang came round the house , and standing below , raised up his yellow , thin face . " All finish ? " he asked ... Wang unemotion- ally , and marched off , turning his back on the wharf and the great world beyond , represented by the ...
Page 169
... Wang had invited them . But this was the only occasion when any sound louder than the buzzing of insects had troubled the profound silence of the clearing . The natives were never invited again . Wang not only knew how to live according ...
... Wang had invited them . But this was the only occasion when any sound louder than the buzzing of insects had troubled the profound silence of the clearing . The natives were never invited again . Wang not only knew how to live according ...
Page 170
... Wang falling across the page , and the sound of a rough , low voice uttering the Malay word “ makan , " would force him to climb out to a meal . Wang in his native province in China might have been an aggressively , sensitively genial ...
... Wang falling across the page , and the sound of a rough , low voice uttering the Malay word “ makan , " would force him to climb out to a meal . Wang in his native province in China might have been an aggressively , sensitively genial ...
Page 171
... Wang's gardening and of these precautions - there was nothing else to look at - was amused at the thought that he , in his own person , represented the market for its prod- uce . The Chinaman had found several packets of seeds in the ...
... Wang's gardening and of these precautions - there was nothing else to look at - was amused at the thought that he , in his own person , represented the market for its prod- uce . The Chinaman had found several packets of seeds in the ...
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Common terms and phrases
ain't Alfuro arms asked believe boat breath brig bungalow buran chair cheroot chimæras Chinaman clairvoyance course dark Davidson door doorway dunnage eyes face faint feeling fellow felt frightened gaze gentleman gharry girl glance gleam gone governor gunwale hand hanging head heard Heyst hotel-keeper island Java Sea jetty Jones knew Lena light lips looked Malay Martin matter mean mind Morrison moustaches moved movement murmured mysterious never night Number once paused Pedro perhaps physiognomy quiet Ricardo round Samburan sarong sauceboat Schom Schomberg schooner seemed shadow shoulders side sight silence smile sort sound Sourabaya speak stare stood strange suddenly surprised Swede table d'hôte talk tell Tesmans There's thing thought tion told tone Tropical Belt Coal turned verandah voice walked Wang watched wharf What's whispered woman wonder words Zangiacomo
Popular passages
Page 381 - Ah, Davidson, woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love — and to put its trust in life!
Page 186 - Funny position, wasn't it? The boredom came later, when we lived together on board his ship. I had, in a moment of inadvertence, created for myself a tie. How to define it precisely I don't know. One gets attached in a way to people one has done something for. But is that friendship? I am not sure what it was. I only know that he who forms a tie is lost. The germ of corruption has entered into his soul.
Page 378 - ... into the sanctuary of his innermost heart — for ever ! The flush of rapture flooding her whole being broke out in a smile of innocent, girlish happiness ; and with that divine radiance on her lips she breathed her last, triumphant, seeking for his glance in the shades of death.
Page 158 - Both these white men looked on native life as a mere play of shadows. A play of shadows the dominant race could walk through unaffected and disregarded in the pursuit of its incomprehensible aims and needs.
Page 204 - Of the stratagems of life the most cruel is the consolation of love — the most subtle, too; for the desire is the bed of dreams.
Page 101 - Latin races; and though his eyes strayed about irresolutely, yet his swollen, angry features awakened in the miserable woman over whom he had been tyrannising for years a fear for his precious carcass, since the poor creature had nothing else but that to hold on to in the world. She knew him well; but she did not know him altogether. The last thing a woman will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage. And, timid in her corner, she ventured to...
Page 188 - Excellent fellow," Heyst responded, with a readiness that she did not expect. "But it was a weakness on my part. I really didn't want to, only he wouldn't let me off, and I couldn't...