Penguin Classics: Victory

One of my favorite writers is Graham Greene and one if his favorite writers is Joseph Conrad-thus I feel he deserves my attention for that reason alone. But Conrad casts a much larger shadow than that. I read Heart of Darkness in high school and was impressed by the artistry of the story as much as the film it later inspired. I felt the need to read more Conrad in my post-college days and read Lord Jim and in recent years and The Secret Agent since it was referenced heavily in the post 9/11 days by journalists trying to make sense of the terrorist attacks. I found myself reading Victory since two separate authors in interviews in The Believer’s Book of Writers Talking To Writers said they always read this book before writing their next novels. It is set in the Indonesian isles of the South China Sea and is exotic by location alone, but it exotic in its portrayal lonely damaged Europeans residing there. It is a fairly simple story that is painstakingly told in subtle details of character and emotion-it seems people had more time to leisurely read in Conrad’s time I guess. It seems to end somewhat ambiguously despite also ending tragically. I’ll be back to read more Conrad in the future-it was time well spent.