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Title: Victory

Author: Joseph Conrad

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 69 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

From one of the greatest modern writers in world literature comes a magnificent story of love, adventure, and rescue, played out against the shimmering South Seas. Alone on a tropical island, a Swedish baron and a beautiful violinist discover the long-lost joys of love. But when two treasure hunters arrive on the beach, the lovers know that evil has invaded their romantic paradisean evil they are powerless to stop.

Victory is a timeless classic that showcases the probing psychological insight, the masterful drama, and the breathtaking atmosphere that have won Joseph Conrad generations of fans.

Editorial Reviews:

Joseph Conrad had already cemented himself as one of the greatest English novelists with books like Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, but it wasn't until Victory that he achieved his peak fame. This tale of love, jealousy, and adventure is rife with all the tension and drama fans have come to expect from the great Conrad. Performed with a powerful dedication by award-winning actor George Guidall, Victory is the suspenseful tale of Axel Heyst and his misadventure on a small island in the South Seas.

Members Reviews:

Beautiful, sad and powerful

"I had, in a moment of inadvertence, created for myself a tie. How to define it precisely I don't know. One gets attached in a way to people one has done something for. But is that friendship? I am not sure what it was. I only know that he who forms a tie is lost. The germ of corruption has entered into his soul."

The more Conrad I read/listen to, the more I love Conrad. Victory is a not just your standard story about good v. evil, West v. East, innocence and savagery. It is about being an actor in life and love and not just an observer. It is beautiful, sad and powerful.

The floating abyss of emptiness

Any additional comments?

This was a difficult book for me to read because of how personal it is. I felt myself identifying far too much to the main character, Axel, than I was comfortable with. Yet the very fact this book exists and was written a hundred years ago also tells me how I felt is not so uncommon - and in some ways that made it even more difficult.

The issue at heart here is isolation and insulation. Axel has nearly given up on the whole of humanity and has isolated himself from everyone believing himself to be safe that way. Yet this only made it easier for a man like Schomberg to spread lies and incite others against him. And so the very things Axel wanted to escape from causes greedy, vile men to come after him.

The entire book is filled with characters who have false impressions about everyone around them; nobody knows anyone in this book and all their troubles are caused by these misunderstandings. This is very much part of the human experience, however, it's even keener here since the book was written on the very eve of WW1 where whole nations, not just individuals, who all mistrusted each other, resented each other, and did not understand each other at all decided to kill each other in staggering quantities.

And so when I fully related to the isolation of Axel and began to feel a little depressed that I could identify such a trait in myself, I could also take at least a little comfort in knowing what I feel is not unique.