Victory (Dover Thrift Editions) - Softcover

Conrad, Joseph

3.84

3,896 ratings by Goodreads

9780486812502: Victory (Dover Thrift Editions)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486812502 ISBN 13: 9780486812502

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2017

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"The world is a bad dog. It will bite you if you give it a chance," maintains Axel Heyst, a Swedish drifter in the Pacific islands. Heyst's attempt to remain aloof from the rest of humanity is challenged by his compassion for Lena, a destitute orchestra girl. Defying Lena's abusive boss, the two flee to an isolated paradise. But the vengeful employer sets a trio of miscreants on the lovers' trail, leading Heyst's growing moral courage to a deadly reckoning.
First published in 1915, Victory is Conrad's last great novel. Its central question, whether a man of moral sensitivity can function in a corrupt and derelict world, is treated with the author's fundamental pessimism and with faith in the possibility of redemption. The tale abounds in elements characteristic of the great storyteller's later work: an exotic setting, richly and powerfully evoked; muscular prose; complex characterization; and a compelling examination of the human capacity for good and evil.

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From the Publisher:

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From the Inside Flap:

Set 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.
"With "Victory, Conrad inaugurated a new style and aesthetic," writes Peter Lancelot Mallios in his Introduction. "The tremendous literary sophistication to be found in "Victory does "not result in the exclusion of the popular reader."
The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the first British edition, published by Methuen & Co. in 1915.

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