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Oh, it hurts to say this (because I really loved Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," I mean, really), but Lord Jim is a book only an English teacher could love.
Looking back on it, it starts promisingly. In fact, it reminds me of a plane journey I made once from Detroit to Amsterdam, back in the days when Schiphol Airport was being re-done.* Not that I truly understood at the time how the construction added to the chaos and uncertainty one always feels in airports--maybe those of you who have been to Schiphol Airport can appreciate how a major construction project would have altered the normal courses and customs of that hub of many travelers--but I did feel keenly the inconvenience attendant upon negotiating a redundant series of obstacles (though at the time, I did not, as I have said, fully appreciate the extent of their redundance), coming, as it did, at the end of an already long journey.
Where was I?
Oh yes, it starts promisingly. Actually, I'm inclined to think that if Conrad had stayed true to his original intent (of writing a short story, told in the third-person, based on the actual loss at sea of the S.S. Jeddah in 1880) he would have turned out a far superior specimen of literature. The first few pages are really quite gripping stuff. The narration remains, for the most part, close to the action--"on deck," so to speak; and the descriptive passages, though atmospheric, are far from being a distraction. I give thanks for the fact that the novel was serialized so that Conrad was robbed of the opportunity to return to the first few chapters prior to publication and edit them to match the rest.
*Probably a reference to the renovation of Departure Lounge 2, completed in 2000. Though Day completed her journey to Europe in 1999, she would have read about the subsequent construction in the papers.
Looking back on it, it starts promisingly. In fact, it reminds me of a plane journey I made once from Detroit to Amsterdam, back in the days when Schiphol Airport was being re-done.* Not that I truly understood at the time how the construction added to the chaos and uncertainty one always feels in airports--maybe those of you who have been to Schiphol Airport can appreciate how a major construction project would have altered the normal courses and customs of that hub of many travelers--but I did feel keenly the inconvenience attendant upon negotiating a redundant series of obstacles (though at the time, I did not, as I have said, fully appreciate the extent of their redundance), coming, as it did, at the end of an already long journey.
Where was I?
Oh yes, it starts promisingly. Actually, I'm inclined to think that if Conrad had stayed true to his original intent (of writing a short story, told in the third-person, based on the actual loss at sea of the S.S. Jeddah in 1880) he would have turned out a far superior specimen of literature. The first few pages are really quite gripping stuff. The narration remains, for the most part, close to the action--"on deck," so to speak; and the descriptive passages, though atmospheric, are far from being a distraction. I give thanks for the fact that the novel was serialized so that Conrad was robbed of the opportunity to return to the first few chapters prior to publication and edit them to match the rest.
*Probably a reference to the renovation of Departure Lounge 2, completed in 2000. Though Day completed her journey to Europe in 1999, she would have read about the subsequent construction in the papers.