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Written directly after '[b:Heart of Darkness|4900|Heart of Darkness|Joseph Conrad|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1392799983s/4900.jpg|2877220]', 'Lord Jim' is a similar, if a much lengthier book. It shares a narrator, Captain Marlowe, and like 'Heart of Darkness' it ends with a remote setting in the heart of the jungle. Most of 'Lord Jim' is written as if narrated, not only by Marlowe, but also by others talking to Marlowe, and especially the style of the first half is feverish, verging on stream-of-consciousness, and at times hard to comprehend. Conrad's style is utterly modern, even if it does have romantic overtones.
The novel's main protagonist, Jim, only exists in the view of others. Jim himself remains utterly enigmatic. Still, it's clear that Conrad uses the character as an emblem for all mankind: Jim is condemned to a stark discrepancy between his romantic, idealized ideas about his own composition, and the disappointing reality of his real life, marked by a failure that haunts him to the end of his life. Nevertheless, the second half of the novel, in which Jim becomes 'Lord Jim' in the far away jungle state of fictional Patusan, feels like a redemption, a renewal of Jim's life. Thus when he fails once again, he sacrifices himself in a heroic deed, defying his earlier cowardly one.
Yet, Conrad's insistence on making Jim 'one of us' (as Marlowe puts it) is all too clear and hardly justifies the novel's length. In one sense Jim's case is too unique to be representative for all mankind, in another sense the events in the second half of the book don't endorse the novel's message much, and though these passages are more enjoyable to read, they feel superfluous to the tale of failure, which is the first half of the book. Likewise, this account of the events on The Patna take endless pages, without clarifying much. What has happened precisely when Jim abandoned ship remains a mystery, and the the reader's early conclusion that he did a cowardly, if understandable deed remains the same after all these pages.
Thus, 'Lord Jim' suffers from a discrepancy in length and substance. Conrad writes beautifully, but he'd better restrain himself. What lingers in memory is not Jim's plight, but Conrad's dark and moody portrait of the waters and jungles of the far east.
The novel's main protagonist, Jim, only exists in the view of others. Jim himself remains utterly enigmatic. Still, it's clear that Conrad uses the character as an emblem for all mankind: Jim is condemned to a stark discrepancy between his romantic, idealized ideas about his own composition, and the disappointing reality of his real life, marked by a failure that haunts him to the end of his life. Nevertheless, the second half of the novel, in which Jim becomes 'Lord Jim' in the far away jungle state of fictional Patusan, feels like a redemption, a renewal of Jim's life. Thus when he fails once again, he sacrifices himself in a heroic deed, defying his earlier cowardly one.
Yet, Conrad's insistence on making Jim 'one of us' (as Marlowe puts it) is all too clear and hardly justifies the novel's length. In one sense Jim's case is too unique to be representative for all mankind, in another sense the events in the second half of the book don't endorse the novel's message much, and though these passages are more enjoyable to read, they feel superfluous to the tale of failure, which is the first half of the book. Likewise, this account of the events on The Patna take endless pages, without clarifying much. What has happened precisely when Jim abandoned ship remains a mystery, and the the reader's early conclusion that he did a cowardly, if understandable deed remains the same after all these pages.
Thus, 'Lord Jim' suffers from a discrepancy in length and substance. Conrad writes beautifully, but he'd better restrain himself. What lingers in memory is not Jim's plight, but Conrad's dark and moody portrait of the waters and jungles of the far east.