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Product Description
'To the white men in the waterside business and to the captain of ships he was just Jim - nothing more. He had, of course, another name, but he was anxious that it should not be pronounced.' Lord Jim tells the story of a young, idealistic Englishman - 'as unflinching as a hero in a book' - who is disgraced by a single act of cowardice while serving as an officer on the Patna, a merchant-ship sailing from an Eastern port. His life is blighted: an isolated scandal assumes horrifying proportions. An older man, Marlow, befriends Jim, and helps to establish him in Patusan, a remote Malay settlement. There he achieves a kind of peace, but his courage is put to the test once more. Lord Jim is one of the most profound and rewarding psychological novels in English. Set in the context of social change and colonial expansion in late Victorian England, it embodies in Jim the values and the turmoil of a fading empire. In his introduction and notes to this new edition Jacques Berthoud explores the social and cultural dynamics that inform the novel.
From the Publisher
The Broadview Editions series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Editions series is a delight to handle as well as to read.
Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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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 Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | 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 Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was given this book as a teenager, and made half-hearted efforts to read in over the past twenty years but rarely got beyond the first couple of pages. I had decided on very little basis that I didn't like Conrad, that his writing was uncomfortable, old-fashioned and read like another language translated into english.
I have entirely changed my mind. Older, not neccesarily wiser, but more exposed to the world and its vageries I have fallen utterly in love with Conrad and his writing which is engaging and modern. He is the most humane of writers, capable of being moving without lapsing into sentimentality, and maps the human spirit with all its pride, nobilty, hope, optimism, youth, experience, realism, and evil. Lord Jim combines all these with the excitement of an adventure story and prose that is beautifully written. As I rush headlong towards middle-age I can see much of my past, and my changing attitudes, in the tale of Jim.
I can understand people that don't like Conrad, having been one of them myself: that has changed completely, and he is now undoubtedly my favourite author. Maybe it's akin to liking olives, or cigars, or whisky, a passion that comes with age - but it's been worth the wait.
I have entirely changed my mind. Older, not neccesarily wiser, but more exposed to the world and its vageries I have fallen utterly in love with Conrad and his writing which is engaging and modern. He is the most humane of writers, capable of being moving without lapsing into sentimentality, and maps the human spirit with all its pride, nobilty, hope, optimism, youth, experience, realism, and evil. Lord Jim combines all these with the excitement of an adventure story and prose that is beautifully written. As I rush headlong towards middle-age I can see much of my past, and my changing attitudes, in the tale of Jim.
I can understand people that don't like Conrad, having been one of them myself: that has changed completely, and he is now undoubtedly my favourite author. Maybe it's akin to liking olives, or cigars, or whisky, a passion that comes with age - but it's been worth the wait.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I just cannot get along with this book (the same goes for everything else by Conrad). The story is good, and I can see what he was trying to do, but the characterisation is woeful, I can't get a handle on "Jim" at all. I just want to grab this amorphous blob of a character and shake it until something tangible and human emerges.
The style and the language is dull and plodding. My first attempt to read the book sank in a sea of boredom and frustation after about 20 pages. My second attempt was fatally holed beneath the waterline and fared no better. On the third attemp (...coming up for the third time) I managed to get over halfway before I decided that I had better things to do with my life, and more interesting literature on the shelf, and gave up.
So, like Jim, I abandoned ship prematurely, unlike him, I have not spent the rest of my life hiding in shame over my own spinelessness for doing so. Life's too short.
The style and the language is dull and plodding. My first attempt to read the book sank in a sea of boredom and frustation after about 20 pages. My second attempt was fatally holed beneath the waterline and fared no better. On the third attemp (...coming up for the third time) I managed to get over halfway before I decided that I had better things to do with my life, and more interesting literature on the shelf, and gave up.
So, like Jim, I abandoned ship prematurely, unlike him, I have not spent the rest of my life hiding in shame over my own spinelessness for doing so. Life's too short.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is no doubt that Conrad is one of the master writers of the previous century, however I tend to find him rather a chore to read. Not that reading is supposed to be "easy" of course, but that's just by way of a warning. In this novel, he not only embarks on epic page-long sentences, but engages in a whole range of innovative (for the time) techniques for telling the tragic tale of Tuan/Lord Jim. These techniques include abrupt shifts and jumps in time, and a great deal story within a story constructions. The bulk of the story is recounted by a seaman named Marlow (who also was narrator for Heart of Darkness), who is often retelling what he heard from another source, or even third-hand. Some may find this a little confusing at first, but it shouldn't be a surprising device for the modern reader. Technique aside, this is an exceedingly dense work, rich in lengthy descriptions, and requiring the reader's utmost attention.
Jim is a well-bred young Englishman who takes to the sea, envisioning a series of adventures in which he will prove his mettle and emerge as a well-regarded man. Alas, when a ship carrying a load of Malay pilgrims to Mecca strikes something and seems destined to sink, and his senior officers all abandon ship without rousing the passengers, he experiences fear and abandons ship as well. But when the ship doesn't sink, Jim is the only crewman to step forward and present himself to the maritime court of inquiry, which strips him of his sailing papers. Thereafter, Jim knocks around the South Seas, working as a water clerk in various ports, and departing whenever someone recognizes him. Finally, the narrator Marlow arranges for Jim to be installed as manager of a remote Malaysian trading post. There, he becomes the ruler and protector of the native people.
The story is not really of importance though; really, we are meant to be taking a long and careful look at the character of Jim. Some may find him to be a tragic and romantic figure, however I view him as the embodiment of self-absorption and pride. Jim's vision of himself as a brave and true fellow is so key to his ego that he literally can't face his own past actions, even though they are utterly understandable and human. And far from seeking to prove or redeem himself, he seeks to remove himself from the sight of anyone who might recognize him. His self-imposed exile among the Malays allows him to fulfill his dream of being an respected leader, and allows him to avoid introspection. Indeed, had he been even slightly introspective, he might have eventually recognized that his overwhelming adherence to a code of honor has not served him particularly well. Ironically (or maybe predictably), at the end of it all, his misguided sense of honor brings death to him, and destruction to his people. It's not too hard to figure out what Conrad, who spend several decades on the high seas, thought of this ideal of honor. One character gives voice to Conrad's views, by saying that Jim died for "a shred of meaningless honor".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ok read in places
I love adventure books - mainly to read on the train to work and probably so that I can pretend that I am not going to work - but this one was not one of my favourites. Read more
Published 9 days ago by A9000
Not as advertised
I am slowly collecting favourite books in the Everyman Library Series (hardbacked). This book was advertised as such but turned out to be a very old paperback. Read more
Published 3 months ago by bjethorpe
Ghastly in Any Language
We should not fear being thought uneducated when we dislike books like this. No doubt at all the Joseph Conrad is a master of the English language even more so when it is not his... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Steve UK
A great tragic figure
I can understand that Conrad is not to everyone's taste but I find his work exquisite and consoling. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Luke Warm
Lord Jim.
Lord Jim is more than anything a story of 'Scandal'. Jim, a young sailor comfortable and complacent of his superiority to the 'second rate' colleagues he served with on a passenger... Read more
Published 8 months ago by John
Man overboard!
As the Arch Drude Julian (Cope) of Avebury sings:
"Sealink is here,
Sealink is here,
Then gone ...
My little doggy get along. Read more
"Sealink is here,
Sealink is here,
Then gone ...
My little doggy get along. Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by Mr. N. Foale
Second reading probably required due to Conrad's style
I was familiar with Conrad's style after reading "Heart of Darkness" and few of his short stories. His descriptive, slightly long-winded style mightn't be to everybody's taste. Read more
Published on 9 April 2010 by haunted
Tropical trading redemption
This was the second Conrad book I read after Heart of darkness.This book is longer and to me has more memorable characters. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2009 by nicholas hargreaves
Superb Conrad Novel
This is one of Conrad's earlier novels and is definitely one of my favourites along with `The Secret Agent' and the novella `Heart of Darkness'. Read more
Published on 1 May 2009 by I. M. Knight
A true classic of the genre
This is a book that will appeal to boys from 8 to 80, a must in anyone's library, particularly if one has a taste for adventure . Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2009 by J. E. Holmes
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