Victory
Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity once more. But his life...
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Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity once more. But his life alters when he rescues a young English girl, Lena, from Zangiacomo's Ladies' Orchestra and the evil innkeeper Schomberg, taking her to his island retreat. The affair between Heyst and Lena begins with her release, but the relationship shifts as Lena struggles to save Heyst from the detachment and isolation that have inhibited and influenced his life. Marked by a violent and tragic conclusion, Victory is both a tale of rescue and adventure and a perceptive study of a complex relationship and of the power of love.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780140189780 (0140189785)
Publish date: November 1st 1995
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 410
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics,
Novels,
Literature,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Cultural,
Book Club,
Adult Fiction,
Literary Fiction,
19th Century,
Asia,
Modern
I do love Conrad and this book is one of the best up until the last few pages where the climax is both hurried and does not really work. The slow boil that happens in the rest of the work is fantastic. There is brilliant character building and Conrad takes a very informed walk through a few kinds ...
This novel from the beginning of the 20th century is not very engaging: it's the story of a Swede called Heyst living on his own on a island in South-East Asia who encounters a miserable young lady at a hotel on a neighbouring island. He steals her away from Stromberg, the lascivious and vindictive ...
bookshelves: published-1915, seven-seas, spring-2014, classic, fraudio, indonesia, psychology, adventure, bullies, casual-violence, gangsters, lifestyles-deathstyles, recreational-homicide, revenge, suicide, tragedy Read from March 13 to April 09, 2014 Narrated by George Guidell. Sometimes known...
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 lä...
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 wi...
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