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Lord Jim

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 11,305 ratings · 533 reviews

Joseph Conrad's classic novel about a man's lifelong efforts to atone for an act of instinctive cowardice set the style for a whole class of literature.

Paperback, 455 pages

Published November 7th 2000 by Broadview Press (first published 1900)

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Apr 22, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 4 of 5 stars

It has been over a week and a half since I last finished a book. This is so extremely unusual. I'm trying not to hold it agains the collection of books I've been reading that week in a half, but at times it's hard. I find myself eyeing Ulysses suspiciously, poke The Reality Dysfunction every once in a while to see if it's moved, or tuck The Idiot in my purse to try to get through just a little more. (Does anyone else think it's odd that a 600+ Dostoyevsky book is the only one that will fit in my...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Henry Avila rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jim,no other name is given except Lord, which he acquires later on.A son of an English clergyman,who seeks adventure, at sea.And becomes,the first mate of the rusty, old,local steamer Patna,at the age of 23.Going from port ,to port,mostly in the western Pacific Ocean area.But everything changes, when taking 800 pilgrims to Mecca.Something hits the ship underneath.Springing a major leak.Opening a hatch,Jim see's water flooding the Patna. And any moment, she will sink to the bottom of the sea.Repo...more Jim,no other name is given except Lord, which he acquires later on.A son of an English clergyman,who seeks adventure, at sea.And becomes,the first mate of the rusty, old,local steamer Patna,at the age of 23.Going from port ,to port,mostly in the western Pacific Ocean area.But everything changes, when taking 800 pilgrims to Mecca.Something hits the ship underneath.Springing a major leak.Opening a hatch,Jim see's water flooding the Patna. And any moment, she will sink to the bottom of the sea.Reporting to the obese,German captain,what he found.The officers of the steamer agree with Jim, and decide, that there is little time left,before the vessel goes under.What about all the passengers?A shortage of lifeboats, will doom them.No warning is given .... Beside's, its every man for himself.The captain and his officers take a lifeboat,(after a vigorous struggle) and go overboard. Leaving one man dead who collapsed of a heart attack.The wavering Jim,finally jumps in the sea,to save himself.But strangely the Patna doesn't disappear under the waves.And everyone is rescued by a French gunboat!Of course, all the officers careers are over,when they are picked up too,by a different vessel.Who would hire such cowards!The first mate even testifies at the inquiry,the only one of the officers .All lose their papers.Afterwards,Jim travels from Asian port city to city.He gets supplies, for ships in need but always sneaking off when his true identity ,is discovered. People by then, do not care,only Jim.Fortune improves, after meeting Captain Marlow. A friend of his,Mr.Stein, a rich old European trader,with a fabulous butterfly collection, gives him a job.In an Indonesian,island jungle.He soon helps to defeat a local warlord and receives the name Lord Jim.The Englishman has all the power, he can do anything he wants.Falling in love with a mixed race girl too.But will the moody man,every cleanse his soul, of his demons?Enemies are around, who will try to bring down Lord Jim's jungle kingdom....
(less)

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Mar 17, 2012 Marco Tamborrino rated it 5 of 5 stars

Le parole di Stein: "Romantico - Romantico!", sembrano risuonare da quei lidi remoti, che non lo restituiranno mai più a un mondo indifferente alle sue debolezze e alle sue virtù, né a quell'affetto ardente e tenace che rifiuta facili lacrime nello smarrimento di un dolore immane e di una separazione eterna. Da quando la purezza assoluta degli ultimi tre anni della sua vita ha sopraffatto l'ignoranza, la paura e la rabbia degli uomini, egli non mi appare più come l'ho visto l'ultima volta - un p...more Le parole di Stein: "Romantico - Romantico!", sembrano risuonare da quei lidi remoti, che non lo restituiranno mai più a un mondo indifferente alle sue debolezze e alle sue virtù, né a quell'affetto ardente e tenace che rifiuta facili lacrime nello smarrimento di un dolore immane e di una separazione eterna. Da quando la purezza assoluta degli ultimi tre anni della sua vita ha sopraffatto l'ignoranza, la paura e la rabbia degli uomini, egli non mi appare più come l'ho visto l'ultima volta - un puntolino bianco che attirava tutta la debole luce rimasta nella crescente oscurità del mare e della costa - ma più grande e più miserando nella solitudine della sua anima, che rimane anche per colei che più l'ha amato un mistero crudele e insolubile.

Ancora adesso credo di non averlo capito del tutto. Dev'essermi sfuggito qualcosa. Jim, Lord Jim, è tante cose, è un romantico, un codardo, un valoroso; ma prima di tutto è un uomo, uno di noi. Uno come noi. Un uomo che commette un errore, un grave errore (le cui analogie con Francesco Schettino sono agghiaccianti). Un uomo che tenta in svariati modi di rimediare a questo errore, cercando allo stesso tempo di reinserirsi nella società. Ma niente da fare. L'unica è allontanarsi dal mondo civilizzato, mettere una barriera tra sé e tutti gli altri uomini tra i quali è cresciuto. Per quasi tutto il libro, attraverso gli occhi di Marlow, abbiamo la possibilità di farci un'idea di chi sia veramente Jim.

"A dirle la verità, Stein", dissi facendo uno sforzo che mi sorprese, "sono venuto per descriverle io un esemplare..."
"Farfalla?", chiese prontamente con un tono di ironica incredulità.
"Niente di così perfetto", risposi, sentendomi di colpo riassalire da ogni sorta di dubbi. "Un uomo!".
"Ach so!" mormorò, e l'espressione sorridente che vedevo rivolta verso di me si fece seria. Quindi, dopo avermi guardato per un po', disse lentamente: "Bene - sono un uomo anch'io".
[...]
"Capisco benissimo. Un romantico".
[...]
"C'è qualche rimedio?".
Alzò il suo lungo indice.
"Ce n'è uno solo" C'è un'unica cosa che può guarirci dalla malattia di essere ciò che siamo". Il dito scese sulla scrivania con un colpo rapido. Il caso che prima aveva fatto apparire così semplice divenne ancor più semplice - e assolutamente disperato. Ci fu una pausa. "Sì", dissi, "più precisamente, la questione non è come guarire, ma come vivere".

Il signor Joseph Conrad sta alla prosa come le stelle stanno al cielo. La scrittura è meravigliosa, profonda, intima e non annoia mai. Siamo noi che rimaniamo a bocca aperta nello scoprire che l'errore di Jim è un errore anche nostro, sebbene non l'abbiamo commesso.

"Lei mi considera un animale per essere rimasto lì fermo, ma che cosa avrebbe fatto lei? Che cosa? Non può dirlo - non può dirlo nessuno."

Jim si allontana quindi dal mondo come lo intendiamo noi e approda a Patusan grazie all'appoggio di Marlow e Stein. Qui si costruisce la fama di un semidio, riuscirà a riscattarsi e anche a trovare l'amore, una ragazza di nome Gemma. Le promette che non se ne andrà mai. Ma lei continuerà a dubitare di lui fino alla fine, perché è uno di loro, uno dei bianchi, e loro se ne vanno sempre.

"Ah! ma io ti terrò così", gridò... "Tu sei mio!".
Gli singhiozzava sulla spalla. Su Patusan il cielo era rosso sangue, immenso, come fluisse da una vena aperta. Un sole smisurato si annidava, color creimisi, tra le cime degli alberi, mentre la foresta sottostante appariva nera e ostile.

Un uomo non potrà mai dimenticare il proprio passato, l'errore fatale che l'ha reso tale da non meritarsi di vivere nel mondo civilizzato. Jim si porterà dietro questo peso oscuro a tutti tranne che a Marlow e a Gemma, e questo peso si scontrerà con le parole di Brown alla fine del libro. È un animo tormentato quello del protagonista, un animo infelice e incapace di mettersi in pace. Anche dopo il successo, anche dopo che tutti si fidano di lui, Jim fatica a fidarsi di se stesso. Già una volta se n'è andato abbandonando tutti.

"Qualche volte gli uomini agiscono in modo malvagio anche se non sono molto peggiori degli altri".

Questo libro è meraviglioso. Un capolavoro. E anche se capolavoro è una parola abusata, qui non possiamo usarne altre. Onore a Conrad e alla sua prosa. E onore a Jim, un uomo come tutti noi.(less)

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Jan 28, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up a used book last week called 'In Search of Conrad' and found it fascinating. It got me wanting to read Conrad, an author I only dipped into a bit. His books are set in Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore... so I got an atlas out when I was reading this travel book and became fascinated with the area. I’ve almost finished it so I'm starting reading this, based on a true incident mentioned in the book. The original Jim was second mate on a steamer taking 1000 pilgrims from Malaysia to Mecca I...more I picked up a used book last week called 'In Search of Conrad' and found it fascinating. It got me wanting to read Conrad, an author I only dipped into a bit. His books are set in Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore... so I got an atlas out when I was reading this travel book and became fascinated with the area. I’ve almost finished it so I'm starting reading this, based on a true incident mentioned in the book. The original Jim was second mate on a steamer taking 1000 pilgrims from Malaysia to Mecca I think in about 1888 when it ran into bad weather, and Jim, the captain and some crew abandoned ship and left the passengers to sink, and told the authorities in Aden that the ship had sunk and they'd had to abandon when the passengers attacked them, which wasn't true. Anyway, a couple of days later the ship and passengers docked in Aden too, the passengers having saved the ship themselves by baling out the water. So Jim and his mates were publicly disgraced. For some reason I found the whole thing hilarious. But anyway Jim returned to Singapore, married and had 16 kids and resumed his old life, which was an act of courage because for the rest of his life everyone pointed him out in connection with his cowardly action. So he's a sort of tragic anti-hero, and that's what Conrad's novel is about.

This book In Search of Conrad by Gavin Young is great, I feel like I've been all over Malaysia and the South China Sea with it, following the maps. The writing is superbly delicious too. A colourful passage:

At night the Chinese warehouses, higher up, blazed with lanterns that reflected red, orange and yellow light on the water like dollops of liquid fire.

At night, too, a loom of light arced like a halo over the Town Hall; and lights from the rows of cast-iron lamps with globes of white porcelain like ostrich eggs flickered through the rain trees on the Esplanade.

On the other side of the Esplanade the long facade of the Hotel de l'Europe was a mass of lights like the flank of a great ocean liner. From the dining room well-groomed globe-trotters brayed at each other over their iced pudding, while on the terrace matches flared at the tips of cheroots, revealing white shirt-fronts, and a dead cigar butt arced like a shooting star from where Captain Marlowe sat utterly engrossed, while Jim in matter-of-fact tones gave him the terrible details of the Jeddah affair.

Once, when Jim gave way, bursting out under the pressure of his guilt, 'It is - hell,' a couple of tourists looked up, startled, from their pudding.
(less)

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Sep 06, 2007 Jango rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: classics, favorites

So much to say about this novel. One one hand it's an adventure tale, but on the other it's a harbinger of the modern novel, told from various points of view, creating an almost cubist vision of one man's struggle with guilt and morality.

The prose is beautiful and the characters fascinating, every one of them plagued by their own inner demons. Jim, himself, is almost a younger version of Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, but my favorite characters were probably Brierly, the forboding sea captain, a...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Diletta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Io sono emozionata. A dire il vero no, ma questo libro è stato un parto, come ben saprà chi mi conosce, e finirlo è stata un'impresa a dir poco olimpica.
Inizierei dicendo che ho dato quasi un voto a caso, perché Lord Jim non può avere un voto. Esula totalmente dal concetto di votazione, è un enorme organismo a sé stante che se ne frega altamente di quello che tu pensi di lui. Non gliene importa nulla di annoiarti per pagine e pagine e pagine con imprese piratesche all'assalto di un'isola a pochi...more Io sono emozionata. A dire il vero no, ma questo libro è stato un parto, come ben saprà chi mi conosce, e finirlo è stata un'impresa a dir poco olimpica.
Inizierei dicendo che ho dato quasi un voto a caso, perché Lord Jim non può avere un voto. Esula totalmente dal concetto di votazione, è un enorme organismo a sé stante che se ne frega altamente di quello che tu pensi di lui. Non gliene importa nulla di annoiarti per pagine e pagine e pagine con imprese piratesche all'assalto di un'isola a pochi capitoli dalla fine. Anzi, ci prova una sorta di sadico piacere. Io me lo immagino proprio Conrad, dall'alto della sua scrivania a bordo di un pittoresco peschereccio, che se la ride sotto la barba da capitan Findus e scrive cose a caso pur di farti arrivare alla fine stremato, strisciando sui gomiti.
No, l'essere concisi non è il suo forte.
Non che Lord Jim sia completamente da buttare, anzi: è scritto davvero bene. Ogni azione ce l'hai davanti al naso con intensità incredibile quando avviene, e poi le descrizioni del paesaggio sono di una poesia sconcertante. Certo, non potrai mai sistemare gli eventi in un qualche ordine cronologico, dato che quel simpaticone di Conrad si diverte immensamente a saltare di palo in frasca, ma perlomeno devo ammettere che lo fa con stile.
E la fine? Che dire della fine? Che il prof. di letteratura inglese me l'aveva barbaramente spoilerata, quindi il mio giudizio non sarà autentico.
La prima impressione a caldo terminata l'ultima riga infatti è stata:

Ok. Perché scrivere un libro di 400 pagine su questo tizio?

Poi ci ho riflettuto e forse mi è piaciuto. Forse.
Da parte mia, ammetto che apprestandomi a leggere questo libro avevo diversi pregiudizi, nati dalla lettura non proprio esaltante di Cuore di tenebra, ma riconosco che questo è molto, molto più bello, sebbene sconosciuto ai più.
Quindi dai, non è proprio 3, forse un 3.5, anzi facciamo 3.7 e non se ne parla più.
In ogni caso, ciao Conrad, sei tanto bravo, ma spero che le nostre strade non si incrocino più.(less)

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Sep 29, 2012 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classici-inglesi

“Se n’era andato. La notte lo aveva inghiottito. Mi rimase negli occhi l’immagine di lui, di un uomo impacciato, sconfitto, finito. Era terribile. Udii il sordo cricchiare della ghiaia sotto le sue scarpe. Stava correndo. Stava correndo, vi dico, e non sapeva nemmeno lui dove era diretto. E non aveva ancora compiuto ventiquattro anni.”

Ho iniziato a leggere Lord Jim il giorno stesso in cui ho terminato Moby Dick e debbo dire che la linea di continuità tra i due romanzi continua ad apparirmi sorpr...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, e-books, malaya, read-2012, fiction-20th-century, book-and-movie

Even if is not an easy reading, I liked this book while enjoying my trip in Praha.

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Mar 02, 2012 Capsguy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first half of this book is heavy work, Conrad throws a lot at you without a lot of dialogue to break it up. A very psychological novel based on the internal conflicts and consequences of past actions; in this case, the staff abandonment of a ship believed to be sinking with hundreds of ethnic travellers aboard.

This is told from various viewpoints, with each character having immense development and all trying to come to terms with their own inner debacles and problems.

You`re going to find tha...more The first half of this book is heavy work, Conrad throws a lot at you without a lot of dialogue to break it up. A very psychological novel based on the internal conflicts and consequences of past actions; in this case, the staff abandonment of a ship believed to be sinking with hundreds of ethnic travellers aboard.

This is told from various viewpoints, with each character having immense development and all trying to come to terms with their own inner debacles and problems.

You`re going to find that this novel takes a lot of concentration and time to get through, I certainly would not recommend reading it somewhere where you could easily be distracted.

I felt empathy for Jim, prior to any catastrophe occurring it is so easy for us to believe that we could do any heroic deed necessary to overcome a calamity or thread, like grandeur. The truth is however, that we instinctively as humans recoil from the threat of danger, especially when life-threatening. Self-preservation often prevails. In the aftermath, especially in the eyes of those who were not at the event, it can easily be seen as cowardice but unless they were in a very similar situation, how can they be in a position to judge?

I myself am often an outgoing and confident individual, it is a part of who I am. However, at times when I have shied away from particular instances, afterwards I cannot help but feel resentment towards myself. I cannot wonder how I would have acted if I was in Jim`s shoes.

Anyways, going off on a bit of a tangent here, I hate reviewing books.

In summation, a great tale of redemption with such an immense amount of content readily available to be analysed, coinciding with great quality prose by Conrad that it is more than understandable why this book has been labelled one of the best books ever written.

One last note, cannot emphasise the importance of comparing this to Heart of Darkness. Both written almost literally together, featuring similar ethical and individual dilemmas and the same narrator!

Oh yeah, and Conrad was the best at writing sea-faring stories. Sorry AMERICA!(less)

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Sep 27, 2007 Archer rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: white men and those who want to understand them

Having read this book, I am still trying to grin more like its characters, with the romanticism of purpose and one's humbleness before it. The book is solidly placed from the perspective of imperialist participation. It asks questions of its participants, and why they travel, why they imbue themselves with honor and the duty of origin. There is a good deal of investigation of the hard issues of dreams and of heart. Also, the end is awesome.

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Apr 07, 2011 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, definitive

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "The human heart is vast enough to contain all the world. It is valiant enough to bear the burden, but where is the courage that would cast it off?" Marlowe, Lord Jim pg 218 (or thereabouts—it's what my Nook says, anyway)

I was struck by this passage when I read it. I think it is what Conrad is going round the world (almost literally) examining in Lord Jim. Jim, after the abandonment of the Patna, is frantic to show he has courage. That's why he faces the board of inquiry and why he doesn't leave...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ponderous and difficult to follow, but still a beautiful piece of work.

I say "difficult to follow" in the sense that Conrad did not always balance his action and exposition in Lord Jim. There were large sections of backstory or the minutia of character. Certainly character is the cornerstone of this work in which a man buries himself deeper and deeper into a manageable backwoods fiefdom of sorts in order to escape his own failings on the larger stage of civilization, so it's hard to fault Conra...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Anascape Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

First, the bad news. In Lord Jim, Conrad launches full-bore into every idea, with a thoroughness verging on overdevelopment. The power of brevity is not explored in his writing style. Choosing realism over poetry, he paints a sharp picture akin to a photograph where other writers may have reached for enigma. But such a tender criticism, it must be said, could only be given to a great work. However, Conrad oddly tries to paint his subject matter as enigmatic using finery and detail, and the resul...more

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Apr 20, 2008 bup rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who 'get' Conrad

Shelves: 2008, audiobook, classic, 1001, librivox, novel

I did this one as an audiobook (but *NOT* the version goodreads implies - they 'combined' editions and the audio version I listened to is gone. It's the version from librivox.org - if you haven't heard of it, but like audio books, I recommend the site - free versions of public domain books).

The version I listened to is downloadable at http://www.archive.org/details/lord_j...

Anyhoo, I listened to many sections twice, because my mind wandered, because Conrad can be like that for me, but I followed...more

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Jan 25, 2008 Andrea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jove! This book was ruined by being a story-within-a-story! Sometimes I had to search back and decode the quotation marks to discover whether the speaker was Marlow or Marlow relating something that Jim said. I don't know why Conrad decided to present Jim's story through Marlow, but it really distanced me emotionally from Jim's struggles. This is mostly (barring the end) told by Marlow to a small audience at a distance of some years and I found myself questioning whether he left things out or em...more

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May 05, 2007 علی rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-ones, novels

Jim, young British seaman, is publicly censured for his action, joining the captain and other crew members in abandoning a sinking ship and its passengers. The novel follows Jim’s later attempts at coming to terms with his past. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. Jim tries to remain incognito, abandons his place and moves further east, where his past can remain hidden. Here, Jim wins the respect of the people and becomes their hero. When t...more

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Oct 30, 2008 Jennifer rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literaryfiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 10, 2012 Athens rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in the struggle of an individual life with the world at large.

Shelves: novels

Joseph Conrad is a favorite author.

His way with shaping English (a second language to him, being Polish), is remarkable to this day.

Nobody seems to be entirely clear on the difference between fiction and literature, if any, but this book would seem to be both.

There seem to be two schools of thought regarding stars on goodreads. One is simply "did I personally ~like~ the book". The other is "regardless of my liking, is this a good book".

Most voting seems to follow the first line, with which is...more

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Nov 11, 2009 umberto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I read "Lord Jim" by Joseph Conrad with respect and admiration due to his English writing style with superb narration since he wrote his novels as his third language, a rare genius.
He presented Jim as a man dictated by the unknown fate so he needs to live in the East through moral, psychological and political complexities.
He traveled and stayed in Siam then and spelt our capital, "Bankok" (p. 178) instead of "Bangkok" as used now. I don't know why, maybe it was what he heard Siamese people speak...more

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May 07, 2013 Greg Deane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad delves into the anguished conscience of a junior officer who fails his own conscience when he deserts a sinking ship, filled with pilgrims to Mecca, though he does so following the lead of his utterly debased and incompetent captain. Jim relives the cowardice that undermine his self-image years before as a trainee officer when he shirked the menace of a looming tempest. own from grace and who is unable to come to terms with it. In the second part of the novel narrated b...more Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad delves into the anguished conscience of a junior officer who fails his own conscience when he deserts a sinking ship, filled with pilgrims to Mecca, though he does so following the lead of his utterly debased and incompetent captain. Jim relives the cowardice that undermine his self-image years before as a trainee officer when he shirked the menace of a looming tempest. own from grace and who is unable to come to terms with it. In the second part of the novel narrated by Conrad’s frequent narrator, Marlowe, urges to redeem himself hoping against hope saying, perhaps lying to himself, that, 'I always thought that if a fellow could begin with a clean slate'.

Conrad makes it clear that Jim’s cowardice is not exceptional; he would not have the reader condemn or despise him; even the captain of the abandoned Patna is not extraordinarily contemptible for his dereliction of duty; but he is despicable because he makes no effort to redeem himself. The court of inquiry that investigates the crew’s desertion of the Patna effectively excuses the officers, simply advising Jim to lose himself amid the human flotsam around the ports of southeast Asia. Jim complies, ostracising himself for years, working as a chandler, until chance brings an opportunity for him to regain his dignity through sacrificing himself for Malay villagers preyed upon by pirates.

Marlow provides insights into Jim's conduct and character, telling the reader:'The time was coming when I should see him loved, trusted, admired, with a legend of strength and prowess forming round his name as though he had been the stuff of a hero.' Through Marlow, the reader also expects Jim to prove himself to be more than an ordinary man, one who would not only save himself from self-contempt, but who would provide an exemplar that others would look up, not only for his courage but also for his humility.'He had the gift of finding a special meaning in everything that happened to him.'

“Lord Jim” is worth reading many times, not only for its psychological depths concerning a man who hopes to be more than the world has a right to expect of him. It is also a book that unfolds a landscape combined with a seascape at the turn of the century when Asia and Europe were coming together in the Pacific Basin, and when greed and fear clashed with innovation and personal acts of sacrifice. (less)

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May 05, 2013 Stephen Tryon rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my brothers recommended this book to me when I was a teenager. I remain grateful to this day that I followed his recommendation and read this book.

I find Conrad to be a great writer, and when pressed, I identify Lord Jim as my favorite book. First, Conrad went to sea as a young man, and lived the life of his characters. His writing carries an unmistakeably genuine appreciation of human nature and circumstance. He uses a lot of words, which some may find tedious. But I find his use of the...more

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Feb 14, 2013 GoldGato rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, maritime, winter

"He didn't think in English". So spoke the owner of a secondhand bookstore in Monterey, who was discussing Joseph Conrad. I had never really thought about him that way before, which might explain the barrier that usually seems to sit between his work and my eyes. LORD JIM is different. Conrad may not have thought in English, but he sure could write the language. For me, this is my favorite Conrad tome, the one that broke down the barrier.

In 1880, the S.S. Jeddah set sail from Singapore with most...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Peter Fortune rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-classics

Lord Jim –- Joseph Conrad –- 1917
Lord Jim –- Joseph Conrad –- 1917

This is Conrad’s masterpiece of guilt, self-flagellation, and redemption. Jim is the chief mate on the Patna, an ancient and rusty tramp steamer carrying 800 Moslem pilgrims in the Red Sea. The ship runs over a submerged wreck—a low impact collision described as “easy as a snake crawling over a stick.” The pilgrims don’t know their danger, but the crew knows that the bulkheads will collapse and she will sink. Jim and three crewmen...more

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Nov 25, 2012 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lord Jim Joseph Conrad (1900)

August 22, 2005

I think it very appropriate that the first review that I write of the Modern Library’s 100 best novels of the 20th century is destroyed by technology. I wrote it at the office today as e-mail that I intended to paste onto something when I opened it up at home. When I went to send it, my session had expired, and the document was devoured by neo-mail. The review was perfect. Everything that I had intended to say got said, and now it’s gone. I rather thi...more Lord Jim Joseph Conrad (1900)

August 22, 2005

I think it very appropriate that the first review that I write of the Modern Library’s 100 best novels of the 20th century is destroyed by technology. I wrote it at the office today as e-mail that I intended to paste onto something when I opened it up at home. When I went to send it, my session had expired, and the document was devoured by neo-mail. The review was perfect. Everything that I had intended to say got said, and now it’s gone. I rather think that this review won’t stand up to the first.

Lord Jim. What a novel. I guess that this novel was written in typical Conradian style, being told as a narrative and also being extraordinarily hard to understand. The only other piece that I have read by Conrad is Heart of Darkness. It was written in the same fashion. Most of the time one is left trying to figure out who is talking to who and where and at what time. Darkness was also like this, but Lord Jim was even more confusing.
English to Conrad was a third language, and reading this book was like listening to a foreigner with a heavy accent. The sentence structure is odd and off kilter. This actually works to Conrad’s advantage occasionally, and often lends to this particular story, with it’s varied characters and exotic locations. It’s just a bumpy ride. The particular way that Conrad tells what is happening is also odd and hard to follow. In the scene where Jim is parlaying with Brown across the creek, I actually read to understand that gunfire erupted and everyone was mown down. There were words of bullets flying and people dying. When the literary smoke cleared, there was Jim and Brown still parlaying across the creek. This is not the only example of this kind of confusion encountered in this piece.
Have you ever read a novel when you were really, really high, and you have to read a paragraph three times to comprehend what is going on because your mind and attention drift? You are continuously flipping pages back and forth because you can’t remember who that character is, or where or even what they are talking about? Lord Jim reads like that, except without the drugs.
Perhaps I am being too harsh with this, my first review. This novel has some quite redeeming points. Some of the scenes are described with surprising alacrity. Other scenes are painted with words that make you feel like you are right there beside Marlow in the steaming jungles of Malaysia. Conrad’s unusual style is sometimes like vapor on water; beautiful and tangible, only to dissolve into nothing, then condense unexpectedly later on in the story.
Some of the scenes are incredibly vivid, like the scene where Jewel points out to Jim the assassins that are lurking in the night. Those three pages are literary magic. Unfortunately, it’s back to confusion and ambiguity after that.
Also striking are some of the characters in the book. I found Cornelius to be extremely fascinating. He is the perfect anti-hero, perpetually slinking around on the outskirts, and whispering into the enemy’s ear. I found him to be a cross between the Lord of the Rings characters Worm Tongue and Gollum. The rage pent up inside of him makes for a pitiful and detestable character.
Maybe I failed to see why this particular book was picked for the list. After all, I don’t profess to be well versed in the nuances of literature. I just like to read. Maybe the secret of this book remains hidden to me, veiled like one of Stein’s elusive butterflies. Perhaps the emerald of knowledge is hidden in the bosom of an oriental Jewel. I don’t think so. Overall, although this book had its moments, I found myself impatient to get on to the next book on the list. I give it a 3.75.

(less)

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Oct 29, 2012 Zulu rated it 2 of 5 stars

Okay, so I'm not the world's biggest Conrad fan. Chinua Achebe's essay on Heart of Darkness pretty much explains why. But Conrad's on the list, so Conrad I read! I'm wishing now I'd stuck with The Secret Agent, which I read for a 20th Century British Literature course a few years ago--but no, I had to be adventurous and pick one I hadn't read before.

First off, Lord Jim is confusing. The first seventy pages, it's made very clear that something terrible has happened, that Jim was involved in an aw...more Okay, so I'm not the world's biggest Conrad fan. Chinua Achebe's essay on Heart of Darkness pretty much explains why. But Conrad's on the list, so Conrad I read! I'm wishing now I'd stuck with The Secret Agent, which I read for a 20th Century British Literature course a few years ago--but no, I had to be adventurous and pick one I hadn't read before.

First off, Lord Jim is confusing. The first seventy pages, it's made very clear that something terrible has happened, that Jim was involved in an awful moral failing, but we don't know what it is. It's described in fitful bursts that talk around the bad event but never describe it. (Little did I know at this point that was because Conrad would be spending the next hundred or more pages describing this one event that happened in about an hour. Really dwelling on it. Sigh.) Second, the structure of storytelling didn't work for me at all. After a meagre attempt at third person, the rest of the novel is told by Captain Marlow. That means every paragraph for two hundred odd pages starts with quotation marks. Marlow rambles. Like an awful jokester, he goes back in time to explain things that he forgot to explain earlier. He veers off on tangents to describe what he and another person thought of all these events years later (STILL BEFORE TELLING US WHAT THE ACTUAL EVENT WAS.) For instance, there's a whole diversion about how this one captain committed suicide three days after sentencing Jim, because this captain just couldn't live with it. What is "it"? I still don't know. Live with sentencing Jim? Live with the idea that some sailors are moral sinkholes? Live with the knowledge that such an event--STILL NOT DESCRIBED--could even happen? I don't know.

Anyway, finally we get to the event. Jim was the first mate on a passenger steamer. The steamer was packed to the gills with pilgrims to Mecca. Halfway there they hit a submerged wreck that bangs a great big hole in their outer hull and a dangerous bulge on their inner hull. The ship starts taking on water. Only Jim and the other officers know about it. There's nothing they can do to fix it (they think). There aren't enough lifeboats for everyone. The other officers rush to abandon ship on one of the very few boats before the passengers riot in terror at the idea of sinking. Jim wants to stay and help and be a hero, but he's terrified of the possibility of a riot and of drowning. So he abandons ship with the rest of them. They concoct a story to say they tried to save the ship valiantly, but it sank despite themselves. Except it doesn't--the ship is rescued by a French navy ship. So all the officers are stripped of their navigation certificates for dereliction of duty, but mostly for cowardice.

Jim is a romantic young guy who believes that he is or ought to be a hero. He always thought he'd have amazing adventures as a sailor that would prove his resiliency and bravery and just general HEROICness. So the fact that he did this reprehensible thing, leaving eight hundred people to drown without a backwards glance, really gives him manpain. POOR JIM, seems to be largely the message. Captain Marlow feels bad for Jim because Jim looks like--that is, has the physical appearance of--a steady, reliable person. The inference is, because Jim's white and British, he is "one of us"--a sailor--and while Marlow doesn't want to agree that there's nothing else Jim could have done, because he's completely repulsed by Jim's actions, he still decides to give him a second chance in the form of letters of introduction to other employers now that he's been drummed out of the sailoring trade. So basically, Jim is saved by his privilege.

But he can't accept it. Or himself--not until he does something truly Heroic (TM) to redeem himself in his own eyes. (No one else really cares.) So Jim moves to an island where he's the only white man in residence, and he helps one village in a war against a neighbouring, oppressive village. When they win, Jim becomes the de facto lord over all these native people, because they just can't solve their own problems the way a white interloper can. And Jim's all like, I can never leave, because then who would take care of these poor native villagers? They certainly can't take care of themselves! And I'm like, barf.

Well, long story short, European pirates come by for rape and pillage, and they're stopped by the villagers and under siege when Jim gets there. Jim decides to offer them safe passage back to the sea. But of course they decide to kill people on their way out instead. So Jim offers himself as a sacrifice to the king of the village, because the king's son was killed by pirates after Jim gave his word that they'd leave peacefully. And presumably this shows that Jim had honour and bravery all along, and wasn't some trumped up idiot living high on his own romantic notion of himself all along.

I'm having a really tough time with whether this book can be said to reinforce or critique the British empire and the relationships of whites with indigenous people. Because on the one hand, Jim's pretensions of heroism are constantly undermined. But on the other hand, it seems right to everyone around him that he should be helped out and that he got kind of a raw deal, just because he made this one bad decision once. And on the one hand, Conrad sort of mocks the men who rely on their whiteness as their only necessary route to power. But on the other hand, all the indigenous characters are childish, cowardly, irrational. The best of them is the prince of Jim's village, who could "fight like a white man", that is, using tactics and strategy. I don't know, I felt like we were supposed to feel sorry for Jim in the first half, and agree that he'd achieved his redemption in the second half, and throughout I was just like, ugh I hate Jim. So I mean there's that.

It was a weird read, both really fast and really superficial. Because of the storytelling structure, and all the tangential rambling of Marlow, I was constantly tempted to skim, but I suppose I was meant to read slowly and thoughtfully and really think about all the nuances of the situations. Instead I was like, "this is a stupid situation and I don't care what five different people thought about the nuances at five different times and places." Like, Jim's moral quandary was put forth as this incredibly complex and difficult situation, which I suppose in a way it was--can any of us say we'd stay on a sinking ship in a probably hopeless situation when we might otherwise escape?--but on the other hand, it's a stark choice, a very simple choice in the end, not one that requires chapters and chapters of dissection. So I kept rolling my eyes and trying to read faster and faster, which meant I probably lost some of the nuance. Also I was sometimes confused about who was speaking and who was being described, so there's that.

Bottom line, don't think I'd like to read this one again, but I'd certainly use it if I had to in any sort of essay on post-colonialism.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Una storia senza tempo

Finisco il romanzo, verso una lacrimuccia e mi godo quella piacevole sensazione che mi accompagna quando finisco un grande libro: i personaggi indugiano ancora un po' nella mia mente, assieme ai momenti significativi della storia.

E mi viene da pensare questo: Lord Jim è un romanzo senza tempo. Non c'è nulla di contingente, storia e personaggi potrebbero venire da qualsiasi epoca. I sentimenti in ballo sono universali: amore, amicizia, vergogna, voglia di riscatto, vendetta,...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Daryl rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmm, it seems that the more books by an author that show up on the top 100 list I'm making my way through, the less I like any of those books. James Joyce and Henry James come to mind. This is actual the fourth Joseph Conrad book on that list and probably the worst (though I really detested Nostromo as well). Most of Conrad's work (maybe all) deals in some way with the sea, ships, and/or the frontiers of the world (at the time), not surprising considering his background as a sailor. Sadly, I don...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

I forced myself to finish this book.

At first I was captivated with the evocative style of writing, as illustrated by this passage:

"They streamed aboard over three gangways, they streamed in urged by faith and the hope of paradise, they streamed in with a continuous tramp and shuffle of bare feet, without a word, a murmur, or a look back; and when clear of confining rails spread on all sides over the deck, flowed forward and aft, overflowed down the yawning hatchways, filled the inner recesses of

...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Lyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

I recently finished Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. If you are a serious student of Conrad, you must read Typhoon, Heart of Darkness, and Lord Jim. Several of the short stories are also excellent.

After reading Lord Jim, a comparison with Heart of Darkness is unavoidable. The two books were published a year apart; Conrad began Lord Jim fi...rst, put it down to write and publish HOD, and then finished the expanded Lord Jim. Much of the tone, themes, imagery and even language are similar if not identical...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

When Conrad's at his best he is one of my favourite authors. Of his novels, Victory is the one I like best, closely followed by Nostromo, and The Secret Agent is up there too. Since Lord Jim is often mentioned in the same breath as those others I was pretty excited to finally find the time to read it. But I was slightly disappointed. While my three favourite Conrad novels, mentioned above, spend several hundred pages carefully building up the details of a painfully tense and tragic climax (to gr...more

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About Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.

Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard Bri...more

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Books by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

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“My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.” — 570 people liked it

“You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.” — 33 people liked it

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