194 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
April, 19 15 
A New Novel 
“Victory” 
By Joseph Conrad 
T HIS is the story of Axel Heyst and the girl from a travelling Ladies’ Orchestra with 
whom Heyst runs away and lives on the almost desert island of Samburan in 
the Southern Pacific, amid the ruined buildings of the once flourishing Tropical 
Belt Coal Company. 
4TT Thus stated, this new romance of Mr. Conrad’s sounds prosaic enough, but in 
jJ reality nothing about Heyst is pro- 
saic. A man of title in his own country, 
a dreamer, unfitted for life by an im- 
practical and skeptical parent, Heyst 
wakes up to a new quality in the world 
of things when a girl comes into his 
vision. From that day in Schomberg’s 
hotel when he answers the look of mute 
appeal in Lena’s eyes, a new current of 
life sweeps Heyst along. 
4TJ Among those who knew him, Heyst 
j] and elopement were unthinkable, 
and yet it is this “ looker-on at life ” 
who plans the details of the escape from 
Schomberg’s, enlists the help of the 
graven-image wife of the hotel-keeper, 
and snatches the girl away from under 
the nose of the infuriated German. 
411 And then begins that strange life of 
Til Heyst and Lena amid the ruined 
splendors of the Tropical Belt Coal 
Company’s headquarters on Samburan. 
Vague filterings of news come through 
Davidson, who takes his vessel past 
Samburan every month in the hope of 
being signalled for help. But it is only 
with the visit to Samburan of Mr. 
Jones and Ricardo, that well-mated pair 
of scoundrels, that the veil is lifted on 
the life of Heyst and the girl and the 
reader understands for the first time 
the tenderness and the pathos of this 
strange romance. 
tfJT “ Victory ” is specially notable for 
Til the directness of the narrative. In 
this respect it is the complete antithesis 
of “ Chance.” And yet it has much 
in common with “Chance,” especially that quality of evoking 
from the reader a compassionate affection for the two souls 
that ever strive for, and ever miss, the fulness of understand- 
ing. If Flora de Barral, of “Chance,” is to be written down 
Copyright Underwood & Underwood 
H. L. MENCKEN 
Editor of ** Smart 
Set” says: 
“A narrative that gets under 
way on the very first page, 
and proceeds uninterruptedly 
to a sforzando and melodra- 
matic close. The story sets 
a new style for Conrad, and 
one obviously likely to in- 
crease his audience. Not 
even ‘ Falk ’ or ‘ Typhoon ’ 
has more naked action in it. 
Conrad applies to the un- 
folding of it all the resources 
of his extraordinary art, and 
particularly all his gift for the 
dark, the threatening, the 
sinister. From the moment 
that Jones and Ricardo reach 
the crazy island jetty, sun- 
blistered, purple-faced, half 
dead of thirst — from this 
moment to the last scene of 
all, there is no halting or turn- 
ing aside. Put upon paper 
by a lesser man it would be- 
come a mere penny-dreadful. 
But as it is told by Conrad it 
takes on the Homeric propor- 
tions of an epic, a saga. Told 
in a straightforward, almost 
bald manner, with no appar- 
ent effort to build up effects, 
it yet leaves upon, the mind a 
picture almost as vivid and 
as haunting as that left by 
“ Heart of Darkness.” It 
is closer to the conventional 
novel than anything else he 
has done, and yet it is full 
of his characteristic touches.” 
first among Conrad’s women, Lena, of “ Victory,” shall be her 
sister. Seated pale, distracted, at bay before Ricardo, every 
sense battling beneath a supernatural calm for Heyst’s life, she 
will remain a radiant memory, inexpressibly tender and appealing. 
Doubleday, Page & Company 
Garden City 
New York 
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