Victory: An Island Tale
Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. It tells the story of Axel Heyst who, damaged by his dead father's nihilistic philosophy, has retreated from the world of commerce and colonial exploration to live alone on the island of Samburan. But Heyst's solitary existence ends when he rescues an English girl from her rapacious patron and brin...more
Paperback, 333 pages
Published
June 25th 2009
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published 1915)
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One of my favorite writers is Graham Greene and one if his favorite writers is Joseph Conrad-thus I feel he deserves my attention for that reason alone. But Conrad casts a much larger shadow than that. I read Heart of Darkness in high school and was impressed by the artistry of the story as much as the film it later inspired. I felt the need to read more Conrad in my post-college days and read Lord Jim and in recent years and The Secret Agent since it was referenced heavily in the post 9/11 days...more
Now and then, we must leave the literature of our day and delve deeper--in time and in literary style. Joseph Conrad has survived time as a classic, because his work is of classic quality. I submerged into Victory as into cool, deep water, to emerge refreshed and moved by the literary experience.
Woe, yes, to the man whose heart has not learned to hope or love (and is love without hope possible?) or trust in life. Without hope, without love, without trust, life is but a living death. Axel ...more
Woe, yes, to the man whose heart has not learned to hope or love (and is love without hope possible?) or trust in life. Without hope, without love, without trust, life is but a living death. Axel ...more
Strange to read a classic, be caught up in its story, only to find myself surfacing two thirds through and realizing that the thing is flawed. Heavy-handed Christian allegory, bizarre and artificial conceptions of gender (even for the time), unresolved narrative gaps—Victory is a book that wants to be beautiful, but stumbles too much in being meaningful. Yes, this isn't out of character for contemporary works (or even some unfortunate books of our moment), but the further the narrative carries, ...more
I read pretty much everything Conrad wrote back in the 80's but having booked a holiday in Indonesia I had to take one of his far-eastern novels. Great to read about the "dead-calm Java Sea" while looking out over the dead-calm Java Sea. Anyway,
1. No-one writes better than Conrad in English. Some are as good (but different - Pynchon, Dickens, even Updike) but no-one is better.
2. Only those that haven't read him associate him with adventure books for boys. What he is reall...more
1. No-one writes better than Conrad in English. Some are as good (but different - Pynchon, Dickens, even Updike) but no-one is better.
2. Only those that haven't read him associate him with adventure books for boys. What he is reall...more
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This is okay, esp. the first two parts. When Heyst starts smooching & having stilted dialogues with his gal, things sag a little. But the villains are an interesting threesome, the evil genius Schomberg is a creation of genius, Heyst in himself is an interesting enough character, a kind of Humphrey Bogart avant la lettre, and the narration starts interestingly.
That's what struck me most, in the first part: that the narration has some of the same wry humour that I remember from hard-b...more
That's what struck me most, in the first part: that the narration has some of the same wry humour that I remember from hard-b...more
This novel is somewhat of a slow-cooker, but it boils up to a rather astounding, yet eminently plausible finale. Things are subtle, and if the reader is not much of an admirer of Conrad, the book can be slow going, but mark my words: this one is worth your time.
If you are looking for an early 20th century work with strong, active, but not entirely modern depictions of women – for a dissertation or research – this book is a fairly good pick if you can't find any others. There is a bi...more
If you are looking for an early 20th century work with strong, active, but not entirely modern depictions of women – for a dissertation or research – this book is a fairly good pick if you can't find any others. There is a bi...more
An absorbing, well-spun tale, as you'd expect from Conrad. But I didn't think this was him at his peak.
The character of Axel Heyst, or at least the conceptual underpinning of it, didn't really work if you ask me. He's supposed to be someone disillusioned with values and ideas before even embarking on life, who then has to find a way to live. Pretty much the question covered by novels of Camus and Sartre 30 or 40 years later.
But Heyst seemed almostf happy-go-lucky, and o...more
The character of Axel Heyst, or at least the conceptual underpinning of it, didn't really work if you ask me. He's supposed to be someone disillusioned with values and ideas before even embarking on life, who then has to find a way to live. Pretty much the question covered by novels of Camus and Sartre 30 or 40 years later.
But Heyst seemed almostf happy-go-lucky, and o...more
First off, I really liked this book. I would have given this 4 stars, but there were a few things that dropped the rating for me.
First, the plot shifted back and forth through time without giving the reader enough insight. I may not have caught on as quickly if I wasn't part of the post "Pulpfiction" generation, as well as willing to look up summaries and study guides to help me understand what was going on.
Secondly, at points, the story was just too dense. I...more
First, the plot shifted back and forth through time without giving the reader enough insight. I may not have caught on as quickly if I wasn't part of the post "Pulpfiction" generation, as well as willing to look up summaries and study guides to help me understand what was going on.
Secondly, at points, the story was just too dense. I...more
Audio book version. George Guidall narrating.
I really wanted to like this more, but I felt that it dropped off in the final third of the book and I found the ending to be somewhat predictable, and beyond that predictability the dénouement felt slapdash and was unsatisfying.
Despite those criticisms the book is a worthwhile read and has many interesting moments and aspects to recommend it. The trio of antagonists are engaging and reminiscent of some of Cormac McCarthy's...more
I really wanted to like this more, but I felt that it dropped off in the final third of the book and I found the ending to be somewhat predictable, and beyond that predictability the dénouement felt slapdash and was unsatisfying.
Despite those criticisms the book is a worthwhile read and has many interesting moments and aspects to recommend it. The trio of antagonists are engaging and reminiscent of some of Cormac McCarthy's...more
Like Nostromo, the pacing of this is slowish in the first half and picks up in the second half. Unlike Nostromo there is much less back-story in this novel. While the father of the main character is discussed and is important although dead, most of the rest of the characters have a history only within the scope of the story.
One thing that came to me strongly was an echoing of "The Tempest". Particularly the characters Pedro and Wang seemed to be sort of inverted images o...more
One thing that came to me strongly was an echoing of "The Tempest". Particularly the characters Pedro and Wang seemed to be sort of inverted images o...more
I love Joseph Conrad, I forgot how much until I picked this up :) He has really interesting insights into the dark side of human nature- a theme that I find absolutely fascinating for some reason. His representations of women and minorities leave something to be desired, but his representation of humanity as a whole is well worth researching. I put this book in my classic monster books because, like the count in The Woman in White, Mr. Jones is a monster although in human form. I'm looking forwa...more
In the end, I liked this novel. Conrad can be so difficult to penetrate that joy is lost in the strain of comprehension, but this novel is far less dense than many of his earlier works. I can see why this was a commercial success as well as a critical one. I am using Victory for the second chapter of my dissertation so I am sure that I will come to know it fairly extensively over the next few months. If you are already a fan of Conrad, give this lesser known work a try. If you are not alrea...more
Initial reactions: Instantly draws you in. Conrad's powerful command of description and forward-moving plot make for a smooth read. What I liked the most was his thorough study of each important character. The relationship between Lena and Heyst is complex and not a simple love story. Ricardo and Mr. Jones offer beguiling studies of evil. I also got a sense of how one cannot ever be too sure of another body's intentions and vice versa, making for uncertainty, and the cause of all of Heyst's unlu...more
This book has, as usual for Conrad, a very interesting plot, with fairly interesting characters, with a good deal of strange racist dialect involved in describing them. The Chinese cook, through a large part of the novel, gets described as "the chink" and repeatedly has his "slanted eyes" referred to as a defining point of his personality, despite the fact that he is central to the plot and one of the most interesting of the people we come across in the story. Also, Pedro, ...more
I enjoyed this novel from the pen of Joseph Conrad - it may be my favorite although Conrad has the knack for writing consistently good novels that makes it hard to rank them. Victory's most striking formal characteristic is its shifting narrative and temporal perspective with the first section from the viewpoint of a sailor, the second from omniscient perspective of Axel Heyst, the third from an interior perspective from Heyst, and the final section. I found the character of Axel interesting pri...more
He had listened. Then, after a silence, he had asked--for he was really young then:
"Is there no guidance?"
His father was in an unexpectedly soft mood on that night, when the moon swam in a cloudless sky over the begrimed shadows of the town.
"You still believe in something, then?" he said in a clear voice, which had been growing feeble of late. "You believe in flesh and blood, perhaps? A full and equable contempt would soon do away with...more
"Is there no guidance?"
His father was in an unexpectedly soft mood on that night, when the moon swam in a cloudless sky over the begrimed shadows of the town.
"You still believe in something, then?" he said in a clear voice, which had been growing feeble of late. "You believe in flesh and blood, perhaps? A full and equable contempt would soon do away with...more
This book could have benefited from a harsh editor. The POV makes a couple of major shifts- we start out with a second hand account being shared with the narrator, who disappears two chapters in, and NEVER COMES BACK. Then we move to omniscient narration.
I am pretty sure if I had read this back when it was originally written, all of the characters would have seemed like clever political commentary about ... something! But now, it just seems hackneyed.
I am pretty sure if I had read this back when it was originally written, all of the characters would have seemed like clever political commentary about ... something! But now, it just seems hackneyed.
As far as Conrad novels go, this was... well, pretty standard. The big difference is that it's not narrated by 'Marlowe,' so the prose is a little more readable. It's pretty pessimistic, of course. If you're into memorable characters, Lena/Alma's right up there. And I suppose Heyst is meant to be up there, but it's just difficult for me to take seriously a character with such a prominent mustache.
Set in a time when you could disappear from the world by hanging out on the right Pacific island, Conrad's novel is most interesting as a record of European/AMerican sensibilities of the time and, for writers, a style of effaced third person narrative which is unusually present and involving. (Most writers fall into the third person to keep their emotional distance from the story.)
So ist das mit den Fabulierkünstlern - manchmal übertreiben sie es und vergessen dann, dass ihre Figuren nicht nur schwafeln, sondern auch Handlungen setzen sollten. In diesem Roman ist das die größte Schwäche. So gut Conrad bei der Beschreibung der Natur und gesellschaftlicher Realitäten ist, so lähmend ist es, Leuten ständig zuzuhören, die nur von Liebe, Betrügen, Eifersucht, Töten.... labern, und bei der Ausführung ständig zaudern.
Kennt man einen Roman kennt man alle - ist wie bei D...more
Kennt man einen Roman kennt man alle - ist wie bei D...more
This book is not really worth the time. While it is written by a well-known author, the story is nowhere near to being his best work. The positives are limited to a tropical island setting and a story that’s suspenseful at least up to the end. The negatives include an ending scene is rushed, a main character that is never developed but somehow is suppose to carry the central theme of “victory,” and an ending that would have any 60-minute suspense series on TV jealous of how quickly everything...more
Besides its pretty ridiculous depiction of the protagonist's Chinese porter, and a pretty decent rakish villain, this story fell way short of expectations set for me by Heart of Darkness. Have not read anything else by Conrad beside those two works, but from the evidence so far his command over love stories ain't so great.
One of the later Conrad and likely the best. There was an HBO movie made of it with Willem Defoe as Heyst, but it was only o.k.. The first place I went in Warsaw was to Conrad's former residence (as a child) on Novy Swiat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NowySw...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NowySw...
I could not find an image of the copy of this book that I am reading, which has the grooviest minimalist 1920's cover illustration (by Edward Gorey). I love the covers of those early paperbacks,and honestly, can not separate the literary contents of the book from the musty brilliance(and aroma)of those old editions.
This book has great characters, exotic atmosphere and a fantastic plot. Woven into this are philosophical themes expressed with great restraint. It reminds me a bit o...more
This book has great characters, exotic atmosphere and a fantastic plot. Woven into this are philosophical themes expressed with great restraint. It reminds me a bit o...more
The more Conrad I read, the more I love Conrad. Victory is a not just your standard story about good v. evil, innocence and savagery. It is about being an actor in life and love and not just an observer. It is beautiful, sad and powerful.
Absolutely stunning. If you've never read any of Conrad's novels, or if you didn't enjoy Heart of Darkness, give Victory a try. It's much more accessible than his earlier work, yet it still retains all the elements that make Conrad great.
I loved this book. Conrad's typical haunting grey narrative is intoxicating to me.This would make a great movie, if taken on by some quality film-maker..
If you send me to a desert island (read to get "joke") with a few books, this would be one of them. I learned that JC's heart is not all dark.
The least scope of any Conrad book I've read yet, but still decent. And I suppose it's getting a little old pointing out white male early modernist writers couldn't write women. So I won't.
I share deeply the hiden fear of Conrad where he was always in doubt if he could express himself in a proper way through another langauge than his motherland’s. That’s terrible.
پیروزی هم برای کنراد موفقیت آورد اما پس از دل تاریکی کنراد دیگر شاهکاری نیافرید.
این کتاب با ترجمه ی هرمز داورپناه در سال 1374 چاپ و منتشر شده است
یکی از آخرین کارهای کنراد است که در زمان جنگ جهانی اول پایان یافته.
پیروزی هم برای کنراد موفقیت آورد اما پس از دل تاریکی کنراد دیگر شاهکاری نیافرید.
این کتاب با ترجمه ی هرمز داورپناه در سال 1374 چاپ و منتشر شده است
یکی از آخرین کارهای کنراد است که در زمان جنگ جهانی اول پایان یافته.
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| Does anyone have one copy to sell? | 2 | 7 | Jul 27, 2011 01:10pm | |
| Joseph Conrad | 1 | 9 | Mar 05, 2008 10:41am |
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Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.
Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work...more
More about Joseph Conrad...
Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work...more
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