

Loading... Lord Jim (1900)by Joseph Conrad
![]()
» 39 more Unread books (93) Favourite Books (851) Folio Society (347) 20th Century Literature (476) Out of Copyright (58) 19th Century (89) 1890s (15) Modernism (56) Ambleside Books (371) A Novel Cure (375) 100 World Classics (94) Fiction For Men (85) Authors from England (144) Books with Noble Titles (141) Romans (27) Accidents in Fiction (11) Generation Joshua (70) Alphabetical Books (178) Best Sea Stories (5) No current Talk conversations about this book. Fiction If you’ve heard that Joseph Conrad wrote sea tales and come to Lord Jim expecting a Hornblower tale, you’ll be disappointed. Conrad’s first-hand experience of the sea in its many moods is evident. But the sea is merely the canvas; Conrad’s real subject is the depths of the heart, the vagaries of the human psyche. In this, Conrad’s books are similar to those of a contemporary novelist, Henry James. The title character of the book appears and disappears, yet is the center of the book. Most of what we learn about Jim is third hand, as is much of the action of the plot. Almost all of the book, from chapter 5 to chapter 35, is told by a seaman only identified as Marlow, who also narrates Heart of Darkness. It’s an interesting narration technique: between us, the readers, and the protagonist stands the author, the nameless narrator who recounts what he heard from Marlow, who for his part, fills in what he heard directly from Jim with the accounts of other memorable characters such as Stein and Gentleman Brown. This distances us from the action. Marlow’s comment about Jim in chapter 21, “It is only through me that he exists for you,” is a reminder from Conrad of what is true about all fiction. From childhood, Jim dreamed of performing heroic deeds. Stein, one of the many memorable secondary characters, diagnoses him, without ever meeting him, as a romantic. Yet when Jim twice finds himself in a situation calling for action—not even something heroic, but no more than would be expected of any seaman—he freezes. An understandable lapse, except that Jim cannot forgive himself, especially after the second incident, which leaves him stripped of his seaman’s papers. Jim can’t live with the discrepancy between his imagined ideal of himself and the reality of his failure, so he tries to disappear—running not so much from others as from himself. Marlow slips into acting as his patron, arranging a series of positions for him, from which Jim flees every time his identity is revealed. Finally, Jim achieves some measure of peace in the remote trading station of Patusan, sent to be the agent of Stein. It isn’t long before he lives up to his image of himself, becoming the Tuan, the lord of the local population, and finding love with a woman he calls Jewel, stepdaughter of the corrupt agent he displaces. The idyll can’t last, of course. The last few chapters of this book, once a malevolent agent of destiny enters, were nearly unbearable to read. It seems as if Jim can only be destroyed by his evil twin, another product of Britain’s “us,” that is, the “right people.” Yet, like Jim, Gentleman Brown has been deformed by his experience of the South Seas. Whereas for Jim, the deformity takes the form of a naive devotion to honor, Brown has lost all sense of it. All in all, this book is a well-told tale, written in rich late-nineteenth-century prose. Conrad, like Henry James, can strike the modern reader as long-winded. He often takes three sentences to say what writers today might say in one. This doesn’t strike me as padding, however. Instead, the expansiveness serves a purpose. It’s not for speed-reading but savoring. A book for everyone to read. The story is an exploration of the expression of ego in a man of action. Or it is about redemption after the awakening to sin and human weakness. At any rate it is a character study viewed through the lens of a flawed narrator, fascinating, and due to be recalled continuously after the work has been read. Jim does wrong, but after being brought to understand that, how does he choose to live? There is an exotic milieu and colourful challenges, and Conrad's marvelous prose to enjoy. The book began to influence the world in 1900. A young man with exalted fantasies of himself cannot recover his self-esteem after one act of cowardice. The result is the loss of his best friend, the deaths of people who have trusted him, heartbreak of the woman who loved him and his own death. A thrilling & interesting story of an honorable but unfortunate seaman. Utilizes a surprising meta device to frame the story - the whole book is being told by a sailor at a bar. The writing was beautiful but I found it to be overly ornate & overwrought at points. Was really a slog to get through some sections. Ultimately worthwhile. Great & tragic ending! no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesColeção Obras-Primas (44) detebe (66/I) — 24 more Everyman's Library (925) Lanterne (L 28) Limited Editions Club (S:27.09) Modern Library (186) Penguin English Library, 2012 series (2012-12) Penguin Modern Classics (529) Is contained inJoseph Conrad: Lord Jim / The Nigger of Narcissus / Typhoon / Nostromo / The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad Has the adaptationHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
This immortal novel of the sea tells the story of a British sailor haunted by a single youthful act of cowardly betrayal. To the white men in Bombay, Calcutta, and Rangoon, Jim is a man of mystery. To the primitive natives deep in the Malayan jungle, he is a god gifted with supernatural powers. To the beautiful half-caste girl who flees to his hut for protection, he is a lord to be feared and loved. Lord Jim-- Conrad' s classic portrait of a man' s guilt, his search for forgiveness, and his final, tragic redemption-- is a work of enduring value and one of the world' s great masterpieces. No library descriptions found. |
Popular covers
![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912 — Literature English {except North American} English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author.
|