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 x
... Jones , the single - minded Ricardo and the faithful Pedro , Heyst , the man of universal detachment , loses his mental self- possession , that fine attitude before the universally ir- remediable which wears the name of stoicism . It is ...
... Jones , the single - minded Ricardo and the faithful Pedro , Heyst , the man of universal detachment , loses his mental self- possession , that fine attitude before the universally ir- remediable which wears the name of stoicism . It is ...
Page xi
... Jones , who is built on a much slenderer connection . Mr. Jones ( or whatever his name was ) did not drift away from me . He turned his back on me and walked JJ out of the room . It was in a little AUTHOR'S NOTE xi.
... Jones , who is built on a much slenderer connection . Mr. Jones ( or whatever his name was ) did not drift away from me . He turned his back on me and walked JJ out of the room . It was in a little AUTHOR'S NOTE xi.
Page xii
... Jones's characteristic insolence belongs to another man of a quite different type . I will say nothing as to the origins of his mentality because I don't intend to make any damaging admissions . It so happened that the very same year ...
... Jones's characteristic insolence belongs to another man of a quite different type . I will say nothing as to the origins of his mentality because I don't intend to make any damaging admissions . It so happened that the very same year ...
Page 98
... military manner , chest thrown out , beard very much in evidence . The shaven man , sprawling in a long chair , with his air of withered youth , raised his eyes languidly . " My name ? Oh , plain Mr. Jones - 98 VICTORY.
... military manner , chest thrown out , beard very much in evidence . The shaven man , sprawling in a long chair , with his air of withered youth , raised his eyes languidly . " My name ? Oh , plain Mr. Jones - 98 VICTORY.
Page 99
... Jones " disconcerted Schomberg utterly . He had never been spoken to like this in his life . He shook his head in silence and withdrew , not exactly scared- though he was in reality of a timid dispositon under his manly exterior - but ...
... Jones " disconcerted Schomberg utterly . He had never been spoken to like this in his life . He shook his head in silence and withdrew , not exactly scared- though he was in reality of a timid dispositon under his manly exterior - but ...
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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.