Victory (also published as Victory: An Island Tale) is a psychological novel by Joseph Conrad first published in 1915 by METHUEN and DOUBLEDAY PAGE AND COMPANY, through which Conrad achieved "popular success. The novel's "most striking formal characteristic is its shifting narrative and temporal perspective" with the first section from the viewpoint of a sailor, the second from omniscient perspective of Axel Heyst, the third from an interior perspective from Heyst, and the final section has an omniscient narrator. In Notes on My Books, Conrad wrote of his "mixed feelings" about the initial reception of the book which had been published while Europe had been engaged in fighting World War I. The initial reception of the work had considered it "a melodramatic, rather Victorian novel, representing Conrad's artistic decline.” However, later critiques have described it as "a highly complex allegorical work whose psychological landscape and narrative structure lay the groundwork for the modern novel." The New York Times, however, called it "an uneven book" and "more open to criticism than most of Mr. Conrad's best work." It has been adapted into film a number of times and for opera, once.