Cut off from civilization except for the monthly passing of a trading vessel, Axel Heyst and Lena, the girl from a traveling Ladies' Orchestra, live a strange life on the deserted South Sea island of Samburan. They live undisturbed until the sinister descent upon the island of those ill-omened messengers of the outside world, "plain Mr. Jones" and Ricardo. Then for the first time the tenderness and pathos of this strange romance is unveiled to the reader. The futility of life, the futility of love-- Conrad's writing is often dark and melancholy, and this is one of the ideas that it seems to convey in the novels 'Victory' and 'Lord Jim'. However both plot and characterization are strong. The denouement is poignant and remains in the reader's memory for a long time.
