Set in the Malay Archipelago where the author spent much of his life as an officer in the British Merchant marine, Victory is a sombre yet brilliant study of good and evil in Conrad’s mature manner, blending moral profundity, bitter irony and pathos. The theme of a man reaching out from his solitude in sympathy with another human being is explored through the story of Axel Heyst’s attempt to rescue a girl from the machinations of a brutal gang.