Lord Jim (1900) by Joseph Conrad
Novel – 310 pages – my copy (paperpback; 1993) bought for £1 from the charity bookshop in Derriford Hospital, autumn of 2008
- 5 nods
Joseph Conrad is one of English literature’s most enigmatic characters: a Pole by birth who travelled the seven seas, initially on French boats, he ended on these shores writing fiction in what was his third language. He wrote substantial works; perhaps his most famous is the brooding and mysterious novella, Heart of Darkness (which later served as the basis for Coppola’s film adaptation, Apocolypse Now). Lord Jim, its forerunner by two years, shares many characteristics: the sea, mystery and the presence of a narrator, Marlow.
Novel – 310 pages – my copy (paperpback; 1993) bought for £1 from the charity bookshop in Derriford Hospital, autumn of 2008
- 5 nods
Joseph Conrad is one of English literature’s most enigmatic characters: a Pole by birth who travelled the seven seas, initially on French boats, he ended on these shores writing fiction in what was his third language. He wrote substantial works; perhaps his most famous is the brooding and mysterious novella, Heart of Darkness (which later served as the basis for Coppola’s film adaptation, Apocolypse Now). Lord Jim, its forerunner by two years, shares many characteristics: the sea, mystery and the presence of a narrator, Marlow.
Lord Jim follows the adventures of a water-clerk named - yes, you guessed it - Jim; a man who was ‘an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, headed forward, and a fixed from-under-stare which made you think of a charging bull’ (p.3). Jim finds himself attached to unwanted infamy when he and several others abandon their ship, the Patna, when they believe it to be heading the way of Davy Jones’ locker; leaving the hundred or so souls present on the ship to their watery graves. However, the boat survives, leaving those who bolted to become derided as cowards.
Intrigued by Jim's struggle, Marlow becomes attached to him and his romantic story (befriending others and any who will listen to him), seeing him fly from one job to the next, always trying to stay ahead of his besmeared reputation. Jim is eventually given a chance to hide from the known world on the island of Patusan, where – feeling he has nothing left to lose – he rises to become respected, their Tuan – or Lord in English. The story ends with Jim's final confrontation in his battle for redemption: not only from the wider world, but also from his own conscience. I leave out the details in case any of you Bookwormers take the great choice of reading this classic.
And classic is it. Throughout all Conrad’s prose is a delight to behold. This is one of the top masters of English fiction at work. Moreover, Conrad's inventive narrative devices clad this tale in a greater enigma. The story is told in numerous viewpoints, from third-person to that of Marlow, all of which give us multiple glimspes of Jim. The ending question for the reader is: do we ever really know him, or does it instead remain an unsolvable mystery?
Lord Jim is a heavyweight of literature; a showcase of one of the great novelists on top form; a hands down 5 nodder.
