Books with title Lord Jim : A Tale

Considered to be essentially a book about the sea, Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim is a timeless classic about man’s desire to greatness, about the power of fear and about many other aspects of human emotions, all depicted in Conrad’s well-known, insightful and impartial style.The protagonist of the novel is Jim, a young British sailor who serves as first mate on a ship called Patna that transports pilgrims to Mecca. The ship becomes damaged and its crew and passengers leave it to be collected later on by a French ship, but the crew is held responsible for the damage and they must appear in front of a court. Most crew members disappear to escape justice, leaving young Jim to be the only one who undergoes inquiries by the court.He is punished, his navigation command certificate is taken away, but he later on finds work as a ship chandler’s clerk, then he becomes factor in Patusan, a remote area in the South Seas invented by Conrad for this novel. Jim lives a decent life in Patusan and he earns the respect of locals by protecting them against bandits. Though Jim seems to have found his peace, in fact he did not, willingly meeting his tragic end.Lord Jim is undeniably among Conrad’s best novels, with his lyrical and sensitive storytelling style at its best. Jim has a tainted past, but he is struggling to prove his worth despite his shameful behavior in the past. He suffers and experiences happiness, like all of us, he is deeply human and complicated, like all of us, making the novel as complex as only the best modernist novels can be. Lord Jim makes an excellent read for anyone interested in human nature that is always brave and coward, explicit and enigmatic at the same time.

Jim is young, ambitious, and idealistic, keen to make his name in the world. But fate has other plans. Jim has been made First Mate aboard the Patna, but when the ship starts to flood in the middle of the voyage, Jim joins the captain and crew in abandoning the her and her passengers to their fates. The ship survives, but Jim is stripped of his rank for dereliction of duty and realizes how far short he has fallen of his dreams of becoming a leader and a hero. The narrative, voiced by sea captain Charles Marlow (also the narrator of Conrad's Heart of Darkness), follows Jim as he tries to redeem himself. As he travels ever farther eastward, Jim ends up on a remote Indonesian island where his name and reputation mean nothing. Finally it seems that he can start afresh, and after defeating a local bandit, he wins the admiration of the local people (and a beautiful girl) and becomes their leader: "Lord Jim." However, his past is always there . . . Partly based on true events, this is a compelling and vivid story, and Conrad's telling of it asks us to judge for ourselves what we think of Jim. This beautifully produced classic edition also includes a reading guide and a map of the route taken by Jim as he flees the sinking ship and ends up on the other side of the world.

Marlow narrates the story of Lord Jim, a promising young man who falls from grace, then attempts to redeem himself in Patusan, a fictional Indonesian island. His story is told entirely through the perspectives of Marlow and others who join their voices to his, and so the enigma at the centre of Jim's character and actions is never entirely resolved. Marlow also narrates Conrad's novels Heart of Darkness and Youth and Chance.

Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with his past. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Lord Jim #85 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Joseph Conrad lived a life that was as fantastic as any of his fiction. Born in Poland, December 3, 1857, he died in England on August 3, 1924. This native of an inland country spent his youth at sea, and although relatively ignorant of the English language until the age of twenty, he ultimately became one of the greatest of English novelists and stylists. Conrad's parents were aristocrats, ardent patriots who died when he was a child as a result of their revolutionary activities. He went to sea at sixteen, taught himself English and, after diligent study, gradually worked his way up until he passed his master's examination and was given command of merchant ships in the Orient and on the Congo. At the age of thirty-two he decided to try his hand at writing, left the sea, married and became the father of two sons. Although his work won the admiration of critics, sales were small, and debts and poor health plagued Conrad for many years. He was a nervous, introverted, gloomy man, for whom writing was an agony, but he was rich in friends who appreciated his genius, among them Henry James, Stephen Crane and Ford Madox Ford. Although the ocean and the mysterious lands that border it are the settings for his books, the truth of human experience is his theme, depicted with vigor, rhythm and passionate contemplation of reality.

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 ruined: an isolated scandal has assumed horrifying proportions. But then he is befriended by an older man named Marlow who helps to establish him in exotic Patusan, a remote Malay settlement where his courage is put to the test once more. Lord Jim is about courage and cowardice, self-knowledge and personal growth. It 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 turmoil of a fading empire.

Haunted by the memory of a moment of lost nerve during a disastrous voyage, Jim submits to condemnation by a Court of Inquiry. In the wake of his disgrace he travels to the exotic region of Patusan, and as the agent at this remote trading post comes to be revered as 'Tuan Jim.' Here he finds a measure of serenity and respect within himself. However, when a gang of thieves arrives on the island, the memory of his earlier disgrace comes again to the fore, and his relationship with the people of the island is jeopardized.