Written in 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, Victory was immediately acclaimed the work of a master. It has grown steadily in the estimation of a new generation of readers who have come upon it as a rare discovery. Older readers go back to it for the sheer pleasure of its graceful prose and its subtleties of characterization. Victory is one of the novels by which Joseph Conrad achieved the fullest measure of his gifts as a storyteller. It vies for favor with Lord Jim (No. 186), Nostromo (No. 275) and Heart of Darkness (in Great Modern Short Stories, No. 168).