- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; New edition edition (Oct 23 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140180923
- ISBN-13: 978-0140180923
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.2 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,832,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
When Lord Jim first appeared in 1900, many took Joseph Conrad to task for couching an entire novel in the form of an extended conversation--a ripping good yarn, if you like. (One critic in The Academy complained that the narrator "was telling that after-dinner story to his companions for eleven solid hours.") Conrad defended his method, insisting that people really do talk for that long, and listen as well. In fact his chatty masterwork requires no defense--it offers up not only linguistic pleasures but a timeless exploration of morality.
The eponymous Jim is a young, good-looking, genial, and naive water-clerk on the Patna, a cargo ship plying Asian waters. He is, we are told, "the kind of fellow you would, on the strength of his looks, leave in charge of the deck." He also harbors romantic fantasies of adventure and heroism--which are promptly scuttled one night when the ship collides with an obstacle and begins to sink. Acting on impulse, Jim jumps overboard and lands in a lifeboat, which happens to be bearing the unscrupulous captain and his cohorts away from the disaster. The Patna, however, manages to stay afloat. The foundering vessel is towed into port--and since the officers have strategically vanished, Jim is left to stand trial for abandoning the ship and its 800 passengers.
Stripped of his seaman's license, convinced of his own cowardice, Jim sets out on a tragic and transcendent search for redemption. This may sound like the bleakest of narratives. But Lord Jim is also touching, elevating, and often funny. Here, for example, the narrator describes the ship's captain (proving that clothes do indeed make the man):
He made me think of a trained baby elephant walking on hind-legs. He was extravagantly gorgeous too--got up in a soiled sleeping suit, bright green and deep orange vertical stripes, with a pair of ragged straw slippers on his bare feet, and somebody's cast-off pith hat, very dirty and two sizes too small for him, tied up with a manilla rope-yarn on the top of his big head. You understand a man like that hasn't a ghost of a chance when it comes to borrowing clothes.This is formidable prose by any standard. But when you consider that Conrad was working in his third language, the sublime after-dinner story that is Lord Jim seems even more astonishing an accomplishment. --Teri Kieffer
From AudioFile
Conrad's haunting story of adventure turned tragedy portrays a young man's struggle against his own weaknesses. Because of its complex characters, shifting settings and roving points of view, Lord Jim needs an attentive and insightful narrator. Nigel Graham is just such a performer. Keeping a cool, steady tone, Graham captures the excitement and terror of the story. Listeners are lead in and out of grueling psychological sketches which run side by side with scenes of intense characterizations and action. Graham handles all with expertise. Vocal characterizations and accents are present but not overwhelming; the narrator ensures the story's continuity. J.S.G. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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First Sentence
HE WAS an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
HE WAS an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A flight from conscience,
By Vijay Sarma "Vijay Sarma" (Chennai India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 2oth Century Lord Jim A Tale (Paperback)
Each one of us has a personal "ideal"...each different in its contours and each varying in its influence on our actions. For the most part, the ideal is hazy and evolving but there are elements which are distinct and rigid...and a compromise on these core principles strikes at the very root of a person's self concept. Most of us are fortunately flexible enough to "adjust" and carry on. For a few, however, the failure to adhere to one's own ideal is as good as a death sentence. Lord Jim is the extraordinary tale of one such extraordinary person.For me the most interesting character of the novel is the narrator himself. Jim is the focal point, of course, and an exceptional character, but quite predictable. The drama of Jim's life after the incident on the Patna is really orchestrated by Marlowe who recognizes the inevitable doom of his friend even as he tries everything in his power to stall it. It is doubtful whether he really wanted to succeed - It is clear at many points in the narrative, that Marlowe was unable to sign off on Jim's character certificate, even in his conversations with others. He represents, in a way, the conscience of the "western world" - the conscience Jim betrays and attempts to flee from. Jim recognizes that and so does Marlowe...but he also loves Jim...so the dilemma is really his - should he allow his friend to redeem his honour in the only acceptable manner or should he prolong Jim's onerous journey through an unforgiving life by creating an illusion of redemption, which he probably knew Jim's stint in Patusan would. He is, therefore, equally a party to the betrayal and Jim's fatal purging is also, to an extent, his own. A wonderful book and a subject equal to Conrad's literary class. The only thing that left a bad taste was the implied superiority of the Westerner's ethics and character. I guess it has to be judged in the context of a period when the "sun never set on the British Empire". Vijay
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guilt and redemption,
By
This review is from: 2oth Century Lord Jim A Tale (Paperback)
This is the fifth book I have read by Conrad, and through these readings I have come to deeply appreciate his literary power and the perfection of his stories. Conrad has the skill to border about several similar subjects, without repeating himself. "Lord Jim" is truly a Shakespearean tragedy, mainly because of the Shakespearean nature of the main character. Jim is a young naval officer with high hopes of heroism and moral superiority, but when he faces his first test of courage, he miserably fails. While 800 Muslim pilgrims are asleep aboard the ship "Patna", Jim discovers that the boat is about to sink. There are not sufficient lifeboats for everybody. Should he wake them up or not? He gets paralyzed with fear and then sudenly jumps into a boat being set up by the rest of the officers. He is taken to trial and disposessed of his working licence.Ashamed and humiliated, Jim dedicates the rest of his life to two things: escape the memory of that fateful night, and redeem himself. This agonizing quest to recover his dignity in front of his own eyes leads him to hide in a very remote point in the Malayan peninsula, where he will become the hero, the strong man, the wise protector of underdeveloped, humble and ignorant people. Jim finds not only the love of his people, but also the love of a woman who admires him and fears the day when he might leave for good. The narrator, Captain Marlow (the same of "Heart of Darkness") talks to Jim for the last time in his remote refuge, and then Jim tells him that he has redeemed himself by becoming the people's protector. Oh, but these things are never easy and Jim will face again the specter of failure. Conrad has achieved a great thing by transforming the "novel of adventures" into the setting for profound and interesting reflections on the moral stature of Man, on courage, guilt, responsibility, and redemption. Just as in "Heart of Darkness" the question is what kinds of beings we are stripped of cultural, moral and religious conventions; just as in "Nostromo" the trustworthiness of a supposedly honest man is tested by temptation, in "Lord Jim" the central subject is dignity and redemption after failure. A great book by one of the best writers.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Us?,
By
This review is from: Penguin Classics Lord Jim (Paperback)
An excellent novel, "Lord Jim" tells the story of a young man who sets unrealistically high standards for his behaviour and pays the price. Jim, the incurable romantic, feels shame for an incident at sea and slowly retreats farther and farther from the civilized world and at the same time further from his sense of shame. He sees the world differently from others: he is too demanding of himself and too forgiving of others. Jim is a man unable to live in a world in which people dismiss their own failings and simply look out for themselves. Jim has a sense of moral duty that clashes with the real world in which we all must live. Such a human being, forever seeking redemption for his own perceived failings, failings which others do not see in him, is ill-equipped for a world in which survival often depends on a strong dose of cynicism.
The reader must pay close attention to this book as Conrad jumps around in time, presenting a fragment of the story and then almost imperceptibly slipping into another time, another place. Close attention pays off though as this book is a true joy to read.
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