Why do you hate Victory

[Anonymous No.13298663]

Many people seem to think that Victory is one of the weaker novels in the Joseph Conrad bibliography. I assume there are some of them on /lit/, so I ask you: please explain why you think so, while justifying it (don't just say it's boring, weakly developed characters, without citing actual examples). I personally think it's one of the greatest novels by Conrad, and am really surprised that many people don't agree with it.

[Anonymous No.13298674]

>he thinks there are people on /lit/ who have read anything other than Heart of Darkness, at best
>he thinks he will have nuanced discussion about an author's lesser-known works on /lit/
>he thinks the thread won't get 3-5 shitpost replies like ">implying Chinua Achebe tfw muh racism" from phoneposters and then die

I admire your optimism and will go read Lord Jim now so that some day I can contribute to this board a little better

[Anonymous No.13298683]

>>13298663
>>13298674
I found Heart of Darkness a bore to read, mainly because of the ostensibly difficult prose. Should I even bother reading his other works? I don’t like to write off writers after just one read.

[Anonymous No.13298698]

>>13298683
I am the OP, and I disliked the heart of darkness too. Please read Victory, Conrad wrote more than one novel, and I'm sure if you read Victory you will change your mind about him as a writer.
>>13298674
A lot of people here are pseuds but yeah, I am optimistic, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of actually knowlegeable and curious people lurking /lit/ and responding to threads that are actually interesting and about literature.

[Anonymous No.13298719]

I haven't read victory but I read Hod and lord Jim. They were both good but LJ > Hod.
I just got the secret agent from a used book sale and I want to eventually read Nostromo

[Anonymous No.13298752]

>friend says he wants to get into reading
>tell him about hod to get him started
>comes back in a month
>has read every book by conrad
>what the fuck
>tell him about stoner
>reads it in a day
>3 days later says butcher's crossing and augustus were okay but he prefers butcher's crossing
>tfw ive been on /lit/ 5 years and never even finished stoner

[Anonymous No.13298775]

>>13298752
Your friend seems smart, tell him to read up about vector bundles.

[Anonymous No.13298785]

>>13298663
I would probably have to call Conrad my favorite author, considering of the authors I have read I have read more of his books than others'.
I have read:
>HoD
>Lord Jim
>The Secret Agent
>Victory
I haven't read the Secret Agent since high school, and the last one I read was Victory, about a year ago. While I still enjoy it, I was definitely not as blown away by it as I was Nostromo and Lord Jim. I don't think it's written any poorer, and in fact I like a lot of the characters, but it is a very simple story. And maybe that's what Conrad wanted it to be, and I by no means think it is terrible. It's just simple and fine.

[Anonymous No.13298853]

>>13298663
It's been some time since I read it but I remember thinking it more full, more artistic and colorful than the other Conrads I had read. Perhaps Nostromo rivals it in color, but is the inferior novel overall. Many of Conrad's novels have an outline-ish feel- The Secret Agent, for instance, or Narcissus; also Lord Jim (like Monte Cristo and perhaps Gatsby) has a novel for boys feel- humiliated cowardice becomes courage at last etc. Not so Victory. My initial feeling was that it was the best novel of his I'd read and upon reconsideration it remains so. Good job coming forth, anon. Haven't thought about Conrad in quite awhile

[Anonymous No.13299471]

>>13298663
Have you read Nostromo?

[Anonymous No.13300415]

Because the first half of the novel is extremely drawn out and if you've read his other novels it becomes very easy to see how the majority of the plot will play out. Conrad is a master of suspense and once the three vagabonds are on the island it's extremely tense, but up until there it's an absolute snooze. The same can be said for Nostromo but the political machinations and backstories were much more interesting than "muh gentlemen, he's a gentleman, physiognomy, gentleman"

Conrad is my favorite author of all time

[Anonymous No.13300542]

Victory or Nostromo?

[Anonymous No.13300551]

>>13300542
Nostromo 100%

[Anonymous No.13301118]

>>13298752
>>13298752
you two should make a yt channel on books. please, there aren't a lot of good ones.

[Anonymous No.13301967]

>>13301118
>using youtube

[Anonymous No.13303446]

I read Nostromo and thought it was shit. Is Victory better?

[Anonymous No.13304260]

>>13303446
>I read Nostromo and thought it was shit.
Really?