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 25
... Davidson , coming by from the westward , saw him with his own eyes . Some- thing white on the wharf ; so he steamed in and went ashore in a small boat . Heyst , right enough . Put a book into his pocket , always very polite . Been ...
... Davidson , coming by from the westward , saw him with his own eyes . Some- thing white on the wharf ; so he steamed in and went ashore in a small boat . Heyst , right enough . Put a book into his pocket , always very polite . Been ...
Page 26
Joseph Conrad. Captain Davidson . What I want to know is what he gets to eat there . A piece of dried fish now and then - what ? That's coming down pretty low for a man who turned up his nose at my table - d'hôte ! ” He winked with ...
Joseph Conrad. Captain Davidson . What I want to know is what he gets to eat there . A piece of dried fish now and then - what ? That's coming down pretty low for a man who turned up his nose at my table - d'hôte ! ” He winked with ...
Page 27
... Davidson for details . These were not many . He told us that he passed to the north of Samburan on purpose to see what was going on . At first , it looked as if that side of the island had been altogether abandoned . This was what he ...
... Davidson for details . These were not many . He told us that he passed to the north of Samburan on purpose to see what was going on . At first , it looked as if that side of the island had been altogether abandoned . This was what he ...
Page 28
... Davidson , a good , simple fellow in his way , was strangely affected . It is to be noted that he knew very little ... Davidson's fineness was real enough to alter the course of the steamer he commanded . Instead of passing to the south ...
... Davidson , a good , simple fellow in his way , was strangely affected . It is to be noted that he knew very little ... Davidson's fineness was real enough to alter the course of the steamer he commanded . Instead of passing to the south ...
Page 29
... Davidson's old Chinaman squeaked hurriedly : “ All right , all right , all right . You do what you like , captain . " And there was an end of the matter ; not altogether , though . From time to time the Chinaman used to ask Davidson ...
... Davidson's old Chinaman squeaked hurriedly : “ All right , all right , all right . You do what you like , captain . " And there was an end of the matter ; not altogether , though . From time to time the Chinaman used to ask Davidson ...
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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 laugh Lena light lips looked Malay Martin matter mean mind Morrison 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 soul 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 VICTORY voice walked Wang watched wharf What's whispered woman wonder words Zangiacomo
Popular passages
Page xiv - This bestial apparition and a certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti only a couple of months afterwards have fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards.
Page 66 - The uproar in that small, barn-like structure, built of imported pine boards, and raised clear of the ground, was simply stunning. An instrumental uproar, screaming, grunting, whining, sobbing, scraping, squeaking some kind of lively air; while a grand piano, operated upon by a bony, red-faced woman with bad-tempered nostrils, rained hard notes like hail through the tempest of fiddles.
Page 206 - 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 108 - Schomberg's argument was met by Mr. Jones's statement that one must do something to kill time. Killing time was not forbidden. For the rest, being in a communicative mood, Mr. Jones said languidly and in a voice indifferent, as if issuing from a tomb, that he depended on himself, as if the world were still one great, wild jungle without law.
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 122 - I would watch them lifting their elbows at my expense, or splitting their sides at my fun — I can be funny when I like, you bet!" A pause for self-complacent contemplation of his own fun and generosity checked the flow of Ricardo's speech. Schomberg was concerned to keep within bounds the enlargement of his eyes, which he seemed to feel growing bigger in his head. "Yes, yes," he whispered hastily. "I would watch them and think: 'You boys don't know who I am. If you did !' With girls, too. Once...
Page 190 - ... ceased to be masculine. Her eyes moved in his direction, rested on him, then returned to their stare into the deeper gloom at the foot of the straight tree-trunks, whose spreading crowns were slowly withdrawing their shade. The warm air stirred slightly about her motionless head. She would not look at him, from some obscure fear of betraying herself. She felt in her innermost depths an irresistible desire to give herself up to him more completely, by some act of absolute sacrifice.
Page 354 - I, my dear sir? In one way I am — yes, I am the world itself, come to pay you a visit. In another sense I am an outcast — almost an outlaw. If you prefer a less materialistic view, I am a sort of fate — the retribution that waits its time.
Page 110 - But Pedro, at any rate, was just a simple, straightforward brute, if a murderous one. There was no mystery about him, nothing uncanny, no suggestion of a stealthy, deliberate wild-cat turned into a man, or of an insolent spectre on leave from Hades, endowed with skin and bones and a subtle power of terror.
Page 3 - I believe, why some people . allude to coal as "black diamonds." Both these com- V modities represent wealth ; but coal is a much less portable form of property. There is, from that point of view, a deplorable lack of concentration in coal. Now, if a coalmine could be put into one's waistcoat pocket — but it can't ! At the same time, there is a fascination in coal, the supreme commodity of the age in which we are camped like bewildered travellers in a garish, unrestful hotel.