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Title: Lord Jim: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Sources, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition) by Joseph Conrad, Thomas C. Moser, Norman Sherry ISBN: 0-393-96335-7 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: February, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.96 (50 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Guilt and redemption
Comment: This is the fifth book I have read by Conrad, and through these readings I have come to deeply appreciate his literary power and the perfection of his stories. Conrad has the skill to border about several similar subjects, without repeating himself. "Lord Jim" is truly a Shakespearean tragedy, mainly because of the Shakespearean nature of the main character. Jim is a young naval officer with high hopes of heroism and moral superiority, but when he faces his first test of courage, he miserably fails. While 800 Muslim pilgrims are asleep aboard the ship "Patna", Jim discovers that the boat is about to sink. There are not sufficient lifeboats for everybody. Should he wake them up or not? He gets paralyzed with fear and then sudenly jumps into a boat being set up by the rest of the officers. He is taken to trial and disposessed of his working licence.
Ashamed and humiliated, Jim dedicates the rest of his life to two things: escape the memory of that fateful night, and redeem himself. This agonizing quest to recover his dignity in front of his own eyes leads him to hide in a very remote point in the Malayan peninsula, where he will become the hero, the strong man, the wise protector of underdeveloped, humble and ignorant people. Jim finds not only the love of his people, but also the love of a woman who admires him and fears the day when he might leave for good. The narrator, Captain Marlow (the same of "Heart of Darkness") talks to Jim for the last time in his remote refuge, and then Jim tells him that he has redeemed himself by becoming the people's protector. Oh, but these things are never easy and Jim will face again the specter of failure.
Conrad has achieved a great thing by transforming the "novel of adventures" into the setting for profound and interesting reflections on the moral stature of Man, on courage, guilt, responsibility, and redemption.
Just as in "Heart of Darkness" the question is what kinds of beings we are stripped of cultural, moral and religious conventions; just as in "Nostromo" the trustworthiness of a supposedly honest man is tested by temptation, in "Lord Jim" the central subject is dignity and redemption after failure.
A great book by one of the best writers.
Rating: 5
Summary: a delicate picture of rough brutality
Comment: After reading this book (along with several other of Conrad's books) I am under the impression that Joseph Conrad may very well be my favorite author. Here is another masterpiece, a deeply incisive study of character of the motivation and the ultimate failure of all high-minded ideals. Granted my own personal world view falls directly in line with this realization and therefore prejudices me towards anything the man might write, but, when considering such a lofty title as 'favorite author' one must regard other aspects of the novelist's creation. As with the others, Conrad wins by the power of his stories.
Lord Jim is my least favorite of the the four books I have read by Conrad. The story is rather scattered: a righteous young man does something wrong that he holds himself far too accountable for and the public shame the action brought him exaggerates the reality of his failure and makes him believe the rumors swirling around about his so-called cowardice. He spends the remainder of his life trying to reclaim his self-regard, mostly exaggerating his own importance in matters he hardly understands. His goal is to liberate the primitive people of the jungle paradise he inadvertantly finds himself in (due to an effort to escape every particle of the world he once inhabited) and his once high-minded ideals and regard for himself lead him to allow those people to consider him almost a God.
Jim likes being a God and considers himself a just and fair one. He treats everyone equally and gives to his people the knowledge of modern science and medicine as well as the everyday archetecture and understanding of trade that those primitive folks would otherwise be years from comprehending.
Of course everything ends in failure and misery and of course Jim's restored name will be returned to its demonic status, but the whole point of the novel seems to me that one can not escape their past. Jim, for all his courage in the line of fire has tried to avoid all memory of the once shameful act of his former life and by doing so becomes destined to repeat his mistakes.
Lord Jim is far more expansive than the story it sets out to tell, ultimately giving a warning on the nature of history and general humanity that only a writer of Conrad's statue could hope to help us understand.
If there is a flaw it is not one to be taken literally. Conrad was a master of structural experimentation and with Lord Jim he starts with a standard third person narrative to relate the background and personalities of his characters and then somehow merges this into a second person narrative of a man, years from the events he is relating, telling of the legend of Jim. It is a brilliant innovation that starts off a little awkward and might lead to confusion in spots as the story verges into its most important parts under the uncertain guidence of a narrator who, for all his insight into others, seems unwilling to relate his personal relevence to the story he is relating.
Nevertheless (with a heartfelt refrain), one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Undying Truth
Comment: Your Words are your honor - your honor is your cross.
Be it the cross to live by, and to be so rudley bolted to in the name of duty.
I CAN not begin to fathom the full depth of this story, no may any living man. Times have cheapened, and like Tuan Jim, the Heros have died.
Yet still, remember - your lives are amiss, adrift without a moral compass, that if you should die without ever reading this book, truly you have failed, surcome to a grey.
In response to the stupidious comments made in other reviews, to those authors - Until you know the the joy of the lonley sea spray, and the great ideals written in this book, fall to your own world of shades. the grey twlight has already consumed you.
In Conrad's own words - the prupose of this book is 'to make you SEE.' I stare many nights into the sky, wondering if I will ever stand up to the principals lived by Jim. Do you? There comes a time when we must all shirk out the ghost of cowardice in us, a time when we lose what we valued, only to know its true worth when we gain it back.
At all times, principal, duty , and honor upon your words takes up upon you life. Read this book, only then will tou begin to comprehend the depths of human existance, mortality, and the frailty of those who argue against a good and evil in this world. Lord Jim will open a door to duty, sense, and a common sense of virtue.
Comfort is only temporary, only when you read this book can you understand the THE STRUGGLE IS THE GLORY.
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Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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Title: Nostromo a Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad, Martin S. Smith ISBN: 014018371X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1990 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Oxford World's Classics) by Joseph Conrad, Roger Tennant ISBN: 0192834770 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (Everyman Paperback Classics) by Joseph Conrad, Alan Simmons ISBN: 0460877895 Publisher: Unknown Publisher - Being Researched List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Cliffsnotes Lord Jim by James L. Roberts, J. M. Lybyer ISBN: 0822007622 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: October, 1986 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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