SOURCE: Hampson, Robert. “‘Because of the Dollars’ and the Already Written.” Conradiana: A Journal of Joseph Conrad Studies 34, nos. 1-2 (fall 2002): 95-106.

In the following essay, Hampson finds parallels between “Because of the Dollars” and Victory.

In May 1912 Conrad began work on what he intended to be a short story. It was called “Dollars,” and Augustus/Gustavus Berg was its central character. Conrad worked steadily on the story, and, in October, he announced to his agent, J. B. Pinker, that “Dollars” was not to be a short story after all but a full-length novel. He sent Pinker an outline of the plot for use in discussions with American publishers.

It has a typical Malay setting—an unconventional man and a girl on an island under peculiar circumstances to whom enters a gang of three ruffians also of a rather unconventional sort—this intrusion producing certain psychological developments and...