Victory Author:Joseph Conrad More than any of his other novels, VICTORY reveals Joseph Conrad's characteristic sense of the isolated consciousness. As in "Lord Jim" and "Outcast of the Islands", he focuses on a man whose solitary life on an island in the South Seas reflects his spiritual position. A profound skeptic, Axel Heyst lives on Samburan, out of everyone's way, hi... more »s most frequent visitors the shadows of clouds, his nearest neighbor a smoking volcano whose dull red glow illuminated the northern horizon. His aloofness mystifies some and angers others, but no one invades either his island or his moral self-sufficiency. Then he brings Lena to Samburan and suddenly finds himself caught in the world from which he tries to rescue her - a world represented by the lecherous hotelkeeper Schomberg and the two criminals, Jones and Ricardo. Heyst's dramatic story is one of a man who moves from isolation to complete involvement – his victory, though an ironic one, is a victory over life.« less