9.8

Conrad's writing blows my mind.

Axel Heist, a profound skeptic, lives in solitude on an island in the South Seas. His aloofness mystifies some and angers others, but no one invades his island or his moral self-sufficiency. When he brings Lena to Samburan, however, he is suddenly caught in the world from which he tried to rescue her - a world represented by the lecherous hotelkeeper Schomberg and the two criminals, Jones and Ricardo. Heyst's emergence from isolation to complete involvement is a victory, though an ironic one, over life.

Of the three Conrad books I have read, this is the least celebrated, and strangely the one I found the most accessible and worthy. This is about an island-dwelling Swedish recluse, Axel Heyst, who comes across a beautiful young girl in a band at the hotel he briefly stays at, who is being held virtually a prisoner. Upon learning of her misery, stoically borne, he resolves to liberate her from her situation and brings her to his island, not daring to hope that she might return his feelings, the newness and power of which amaze him. She does, but the villainous and jealous innkeeper has directed a trio of scoundrels to his island, lying to them about his vast accumulation of wealth there. The denouement that follows carries an air of inevitability, and the true meaning of the book title reveals itself in a way that is poignant, tragic and truly victorious in every sense of the word. This book made me rethink my earlier opinion of Conrad. I may give him another shot. ( )