Lord Jim (Wordsworth Classics)

Honour, like virtue, or like reputation, is more easily lost than regained. Such is the premise of Lord Jim. Conrad himself half-admits in his cover note that this is probably his best novel. For more than an absorbing tale of guilt, love, and adventure, it is also a book that asks big and incisive questions. What is honour? Is there such a thing in life as principle? Or rather can one live without principles and, if not, then what if one has to die for them?Jim is young and idealistic, a talented and unafraid sailor, but he has made an early mistake, a lapse that caused him to abandon ship at the wrong time. Relegated to the fringe of the mariners' community, he drifts into in a lost corner of the Indonesian islands. It is there that he becomes Lord Jim, a pacifier, an arbiter among the local folk, a living legend. The lost province of Patusan, besides, is where he finds romance in the person of the smart, attractive, and spirited half-caste Jewel. Yet as strife re-emerges in the shape of a pirate raid on the town, Jim is soon torn between the defence of his patiently rebuilt self-regard and his love and life's salvation.Lord Jim is told in two parts, both drawing minutely and to striking effect from Conrad's personal experience of the sea and the tropics. First comes the strange and paradoxical shipwreck of the Patna, a transport for Meccan pilgrims on which Jim acts as skipper. Then the book follows Jim in his subsequent drift and his reinvention in Patusan. The story is told by sea captain Charles Marlow, the same narrator Conrad has in Heart of Darkness, here however developed as a character at greater length and to greater effect. Finally, for those worried about political correctness, this is no tale of the white man come to rule over the brown, and Conrad's humanistic credentials only come out reinforced. Lord Jim is required reading for fans of Conrad and, capturing the values of a disappearing world like no other, one of the great novels of the turn of the twentieth century.

I was looking forward to read Lord Jim but the first few chapters were so disappointing as it dragged on and on about small details which were meaningless and boring. In the end I read one page a day to get through it.Prior to this I had just completed 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas, a book I could not stop reading and one of the best books I have read, I simply loved it. Lord Jim on the other hand was making me want to scream and almost cry, as every page was a struggle to read - I did finish it then put it in the recycling bin. I do not recommend it.

the story itself was not bad, i like adventerous stories but...I just don't like the style of Conrad, he keeps dragging on with long sentences, keeps on describing Jim along the book, I want to get to know the character myself by his acts and words, not by endless descriptions...some people say this book needs re-reading, sorry I want to be impressed on first read

Saw the film and bought the book which is just as good.

Still not easy to read and to warm to the central character. I have put the book down for the moment and will come back to it later.

well worth reading

perfect

Print is a bit small, but otherwise OK.