Lord Jim (urspr publ 1900; utgåvan 1920)

As others have noted, this could have been a bit shorter. And Conrad's habit of nesting the story within another character's narration (Marlow of Heart of Darkness) is a bit annoying. Still, there is a lot of interest in this story of a man trying to escape a terrible act of cowardice. ( )

Turn of the century bizarreness.

Lord Jim is not a likeable fellow, all show and no substance; although, in his self delusion, he seems to think his actions are reasonable. Somewhere, in the corner of his mind, he knows his truth.

I can say a bit about the subject matter - white men ruling over native peoples - and the resulting colonialism is abhorrent, chaotic, and disturbing. In no fashion is it portrayed heroically with upstanding characters. We are treated to the most unscrupulous group of men sailing, pirating, converting, swindling, and making a living as ever sailed the tropical seas. Still, the story is told by a proper British nobleman whose world at this time never sees a sunset and who, for some reason, takes the young Jim under his wing.

I can talk about what is good in the book - the beautiful sentences, the descriptions, the metaphors. I did tire of the flowery prose and took a long break in the middle of the book.

How Conrad developed the story is wonderful. We are teased by the narration, chapter by chapter, finding out about Jim's actions slowly but surely. A seasoned, wealthy, British gentleman named Marlow tells the story with his gin and tonic and fine cigar in hand. He tells stories within stories.

Personally, as much as I appreciated the methods used to write this novel, I could have enjoyed it if it was much, much shorter. It is definitely of its time. ( )

This was a bit of a slog, it starts with 2 pages of the author justifying its length, and well, it could be a bit shorter. It took a while to get going but did pick up pace in the second half. It's a long time since I read Heart of Darkness, but the plot ends up being quite similar as far as I can remember. Maybe I should re-read that. ( )

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad is a story that shows that the mistakes of the past will follow men and can never be fully repaired. We meet a young man named Jim, who, full of romanticized dreams joins the crew of the Patna, taking 800 pilgrims to Mecca. When the rusty old ship strikes something and is holed, Jim and the other officers abandon ship, leaving the passengers to their fate. But the ship is rescued and towed to port and while the other officers flee, Jim is left to be brought to trial.

Jim tells experienced sea captain Marlow his story, in that at first he refused to leave the boat but eventually did jump overboard and saved himself. He now lives with the knowledge that he was a coward and spends his life wandering and trying to avoid his reputation but through Captain Marlow he is given a true second chance. He assigned to a post in an isolated and dangerous jungle region of Malaya. He becomes valued by the tribesmen for his bravery and is called “Lord Jim”. Unfortunately he becomes too trusting and is betrayed and his world falls apart.

I found the parts of the book that Marlow narrated very difficult to get through as he is very long winded and uses three or four words when one would have done. But eventually the story pulled me in and although rather tragic, I found this story of one man seeking redemption and casting out his demons a very good read. I was certainly reminded of his Heart of Darkness, as the themes were similar and the character Marlow appears in both books. Overall I would say the more compact Heart of Darkness is the better book, but Lord Jim is certainly worth the time spent on it. ( )

As a huge fan of Heart of Darkness, I couldn't help comparing Lord Jim. Perhaps that's why this was hard to enjoy. They are not comparable. If you can endure the first 20-24 chapters of Lord Jim, you will be rewarded with an interesting twist in the tale. But it's a long trudge to get there. ( )