Saturday, October 25, 2014

Book review - "Victory" by Joseph Conrad

Victory has been much filmed and is one of Conrad's best known novels in part because of the beautiful simplicity of its plot - a loner lives on an isolated island, persuades a woman to run away with him, rejected suitor tells three dodgy types that the man has a stash of cash. It's a great romance/ thriller template that could easily adapt to a Western, sci-fi etc.

I've got to admit though, I wasn't wild about the writing - far too many detours and too much rambling, I kept losing the thread of what was going on. It did have some tremendous moments and sequences, as well as vivid characters - Heyst, Mr Jones, Ricardo, Wang, Schomberg. Lena is a bit of a fantasy figure (nubile young thing who needs to be rescued). 

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