Victory/Secret Sharer The Author:Joseph Conrad In VICTORY, drifting and searching for some meaning or value in his life, Axel Heyst retreats to a tropical island in the East Indies where he finds Lena. In this psychological romance between a man--honest, decent, disinterested in material gain--and a woman who was unused to such traits in men, a suspenseful drama is played out involving three... more » bandits and their innocent victims. THE SECRET SHARER, one of the great short stories in English, is the tale of a ship captain faced with the responsibility of command struggling to come to terms with self-doubt and anxiety. The first mate, Legatt, in the brig for committing a criminal act, fulfills the captain's need for someone who will empathize with his (the captain's) predicament, in effect a "secret sharer."« less