Victory by Joseph Conrad (1915)

Some authors write closely plotted suspense thrillers which keep you on the edge of your seat and cause you to hold your breath with tension. Joseph Conrad did that. In fact, he did it better than anyone.

Some authors write psychological studies which analyze the causes of character behavior as it develops and changes. Joseph Conrad did that.

Some authors consider questions of good and evil and use imagery and symbolism to emphasize the theme. Joseph Conrad did that.

Some authors choose to leave their stories a bit open-ended and ambiguous so that the reader is left with something to ponder. Joseph Conrad did that.

And here's what's amazing, folks. Joseph Conrad did all of the above IN ONE BOOK, while writing some of the most precise and powerful sentences and paragraphs you will ever encounter. In fact, he did it more than once. He is among the best of the best, and this book, one of his less well known, is extraordinary, marvelous, exceptional, outstanding, great, superlative, etc. I absolutely loved it, needless to say.

Conrad's protagonist, Axel Heyst, is a 35-year-old bachelor who has become a wanderer, emotionally distancing himself from the rest of humanity to avoid being hurt. He has finally settled on an island in the Malay Archipelago as the sole white man. Then he travels to a populated island to conduct some business and meets Lena, a young girl who is part of a women's orchestra which is also passing through. Recognizing that she is being mistreated and is being pursued by the unscrupulous owner of the island's hotel, he feels pity for her plight, leading him to rescue her and take her with him to his island. Their idyllic existence there is destroyed, however, when evil arrives, three men who have been convinced by the jealous hotel owner that Heyst has a store of hidden money. The shattering conclusion to this perilous situation is a real "heart stopper." (Not a very scholarly sounding term, but entirely accurate.)

Most of the novel is written with an omniscient narrator, focusing mainly on Heyst, allowing Conrad to examine why this man feels and acts the way he does. Emotionally stunted because of the teachings and example of his father, Heyst nevertheless finds himself becoming less detached, but not enough, even in the face of Lena's love for him. To a lesser extent, Conrad also explores the psyches of Lena and the leader of the robbers. My description here does little justice to the subtle precision of Conrad's examination of the psychological lives of the novel's participants.

The novel's theme of good and evil is patterned very much on the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. Heyst and Lena are obviously emotional innocents before being confronted with the three violent would-be robbers, who are characterized as being "a specter, a cat, and an ape." I took this description to represent Satan and two familiars. Whether this is what Conrad intended or not, they certainly represent the arrival to the island paradise of evil in a most dangerous form.

By giving his novel the title "Victory," Conrad leaves the reader to consider exactly who has been victorious. Heyst? Lena? The evil represented by the robbers? All?

I hope I have not revealed too much of the plot, because a great deal of reader enjoyment depends on not knowing ahead of time how things will turn out. Victory can be enjoyed solely on the strength of its dynamite story. But it is so much more. It is a story so rich that I know it will be rewarding to read again, even knowing what will happen.