Paul and the Pardoner in Conrad's 'Victory'

Author / Editor
Purdy, Dwight H.

Title
Paul and the Pardoner in Conrad's 'Victory'

Published
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 23 (1981): 197-213.

Description
Surveys Joseph Conrad's allusions to Chaucer and to the Bible, and argues that in the novel "Victory" Conrad expresses his "sense of radical modern otherness." In Conrad's novel, "Jones's sexual anomaly mirrors a spiritual malaise," as does the Pardoner's, and allusions to the Pardoner and his tale "voice Conrad's balked desire for sacred meaning," even while "parodic Pauline allusions" make such yearning a "mask for despair."

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion
Pardoner and His Tale