Victory, Volume 15Set 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
Results 1-5 of 100
Page xiv
... looked down the skylight , and there was the devoted Martin busy cording cowhide trunks belonging to the deceased whose white beard and hooked nose were the only parts I could make out in the dark depths of a horrible stuffy bunk . As ...
... looked down the skylight , and there was the devoted Martin busy cording cowhide trunks belonging to the deceased whose white beard and hooked nose were the only parts I could make out in the dark depths of a horrible stuffy bunk . As ...
Page xv
... looked the longest and with a most sustained attention . This attention originated in idleness for which I have a natural talent . One evening I wandered into a café , in a town not of the tropics but of the South of France . It was ...
... looked the longest and with a most sustained attention . This attention originated in idleness for which I have a natural talent . One evening I wandered into a café , in a town not of the tropics but of the South of France . It was ...
Page 11
... looked like a wig to the dogs . We used to remonstrate with him : " You will never see any of your advances if you go on like this , Morrison . " He would put on a knowing air . " I shall squeeze ther yet some day - never you fear . And ...
... looked like a wig to the dogs . We used to remonstrate with him : " You will never see any of your advances if you go on like this , Morrison . " He would put on a knowing air . " I shall squeeze ther yet some day - never you fear . And ...
Page 13
... looked already gone to the bad , past redemption . The sight was shocking to Heyst ; but he let nothing of it appear in his bearing , concealing his impression nder that consummate good - society manner of his . Polite attention ...
... looked already gone to the bad , past redemption . The sight was shocking to Heyst ; but he let nothing of it appear in his bearing , concealing his impression nder that consummate good - society manner of his . Polite attention ...
Page 15
... looked with sudden disfavour at that noble forehead , at those great martial moustaches , at the tired eyes of the man sitting opposite him . Who the devil was he ? What was he , Morrison , doing there , talking like this ? Morrison ...
... looked with sudden disfavour at that noble forehead , at those great martial moustaches , at the tired eyes of the man sitting opposite him . Who the devil was he ? What was he , Morrison , doing there , talking like this ? Morrison ...
Other editions - View all
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 eyes face faint feeling fellow felt frightened gaze gentleman gharry girl glance gleam gone governor gunwale hand hanging head hear 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 understand verandah voice Wang watched wharf What's whispered woman wonder words Zangiacomo
Popular passages
Page xv - I went in there only to ask for a bottle of lemonade I have not to this day the slightest idea what in my appearance or actions could have roused his terrible ire. It became manifest to me less than two minutes after I had set eyes on him for the first time, and though immensely surprised of course I didn't stop to think it out. I took the nearest short cut — through the wall. This bestial apparition and a certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti only a couple of months afterwards, have...
Page 329 - Here they are, the envoys of the outer world. Here they are before you — evil intelligence, instinctive savagery, arm in arm. The brute force is at the back. A trio of fitting envoys perhaps — but what about the welcome? Suppose I were armed, could I shoot those two down where they stand? Could I?" Without moving her head, the girl felt for Heyst's hand, pressed it, and thereafter did not let it go. He continued, bitterly playful: "I don't know. I don't think so. There is a strain in me which...
Page 167 - Are we likely to be seen on our way?" "No, unless by native craft," said Schomberg. Ricardo nodded, satisfied. 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 54 - ... be tempted into action. It seemed innocent enough, but all action is bound to be harmful. It is devilish. That is why this world is evil upon the whole. But I have done with it! I shall never lift a little finger again. At one time I thought that intelligent observation of facts was the best way of cheating the time which is allotted to us whether we want it or not; but now I have done with observation, too.
Page 3 - Victory— that we all live in an "age in which we are camped like bewildered travellers in a garish, unrestful hotel...
Page 195 - I see!" the girl said slowly. "Do you?" Heyst, who had been speaking as if to himself, looked up curiously. "It wasn'ta new discovery, but he brought his capacity for scorn to bear on...
Page 106 - 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 187 - I was not very far from you." "Apparently you were not near enough for me." "You could have called if you wanted me," she said. "And I wasn't so long doing my hair." "Apparently it was too long for me." "Well, you were thinking of me, anyhow. I am glad of it. Do you know, it seems to me, somehow, that if you were to stop thinking of me I shouldn't be in the world at all!" He turned round and looked at her. She often said things which surprised him. A vague smile faded away on her lips before his...
Page xii - ... passage between two places in the Gulf of Mexico whose names don't matter. For the most part he lay on deck aft as it were at my feet, and raising himself from time to time on his elbow would talk about himself and go on talking, not exactly to me or even at me (he would not even look up but kept his eyes fixed on the deck) but more as if communing in a low voice with his familiar devil. Now and then he would give me a glance and make the hairs of his stiff little moustache stir quaintly. His...
Page 113 - 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. Martin was something like that, too — for reasons of his own. All these statements Ricardo confirmed by short, inhuman grins. Schomberg lowered his eyes, for...