Lord Jim
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 First edition cover |
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| Author | Joseph Conrad |
|---|---|
| Country | Britain |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Psychological novel |
| Publisher | Blackwood |
| Released | 1900 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 451 p. (first edition hardcover) |
| ISBN | N/A |
Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad, originally published in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900.
Its central occurrence is based on true events - although Conrad never confirmed this, there seems to be too much coincidence for the assertion not to be correct. On 17 July 1880 the S.S. Jeddah sailed from Singapore bound for Penang and Jeddah, with 778 men, 147 women and 67 children on board. The passengers were Muslims from the Malay states and they were travelling to Mecca and Medina for the holy pilgrimage.
The Jeddah sailed under the British flag was crewed largely by British officers but was owned by the Singapore Steamship Company, whose managing director Seyyid Muhammad al-Sagoff came from a wealthy Arab family well established in Singapore. Seyyid Omar al-Sagoff, Muhammad’s son, was on board at the time of the incident. After terrible weather conditions in the first week of passage, the ships' boilers ‘started adrift from their seatings’ and the Jeddah had been taking in water. The vessel sprang a large leak, the water rose rapidly and the captain and officers abandoned the heavily listing ship taking Seyyid Omar with them. They were picked up by another vessel and taken to Aden where they told a story of violent passengers and a foundering ship. The pilgrims were left to their fate, an apparently certain death.
However, to much astonishment, given reports of its loss, on 8th August a French steamship towed the Jeddah into Aden - the pilgrims had survived. They had been abandoned by those meant to protect them and an official inquiry followed into this great scandal. It is strongly suspected that this dishonourable tale inspired Conrad, who had landed in Singapore in 1883, and he wove the main themes of Lord Jim around it using the name S.S. Patna for his fictional pilgrim ship.
The novel works in two main parts, firstly Jim's lapse aboard the Patna and his consequent fall, and secondly an adventure story about Jim's rise and the tale's denouement amongst the people of Patusan - supposedly in the Indonesian archipelago. The main themes surround young Jim's potential "....he was one of us." (Marlow) thus sharpening the drama and tradgedy of his fall, his subsequent struggle to redeem himself and Conrad's further hints that peoples' character flaws will almost always emerge given an appropriate catalyst.
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[edit] The novel
In addition to the lyricism and beauty of Conrad's descriptive writing the novel is remarkable for its sophisticated structure. The bulk of the novel is told in the form of a story recited by the character Marlow to a group of listeners, and the conclusion is presented in the form of a letter from Marlow. Within Marlow's narration, other characters also tell their own stories in nested dialogue. Thus, events in the novel are described from several view points, and often out of chronological order.
The reader is left to form an impression of Jim's interior psychological state from these multiple external points of view; but mere facts are inadequate to explain the human condition, as Marlow remarks of the trial: "They wanted facts. Facts! They demanded facts from him, as if facts could explain anything!" Ultimately, Jim remains mysterious, as seen through a mist: "that mist in which he loomed interesting if not very big, with floating outlines--a straggler yearning inconsolably for his humble place in the ranks." [...] "It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun." It is only through Marlow's recitation that Jim lives for us - the relationship between the two men incites Marlow to "tell you the story, to try to hand over to you, as it were, its very existence, its reality - the truth disclosed in a moment of illusion."
Marlow is also the narrator of three of Conrad's other works: Heart of Darkness, "Youth" and Chance.
[edit] Plot summary
Jim - his surname is never disclosed - is a young British seaman, and fate decress he becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. In a momentary lapse (whether of courage, or judgment, or character) when the ship is considered stricken Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and passengers by launching a lifeboat. A few days later they are picked up by a British ship. Again as fate would have it, the Patna and passengers is saved and the reprehensible actions of the crew emerge. The other miscreants evade justice leaving Jim to face a court of enquiry alone. The court strips him of his navigation command certificate for his dereliction of duty and Jim is alone angry with himself both for his moment of weakness and for missing an opportunity to be a 'hero'. At the trial, he meets Marlow a sea captain, who out of incredulous curiosity of Jim's motives, befriends him, listens to his story and attempts to understand him. He later finds Jim work as a ship chandler's clerk. Jim tries to remain incognito, but whenever the calumny of the Patna incident catches up with him he moves further east.
At length, Marlow's friend Stein suggests placing Jim as his factor in Patusan, a remote inland settlement with a mixed Malay and Bugis population, where Jim's past can remain hidden. Here, Jim wins the respect of the people and becomes their leader by relieving them from the predations of the bandit Sherif Ali and protecting them from the corrupt local Malay chief, Rajah Tunku Allang. Jim wins the love of Jewel, a woman of mixed race, and is "satisfied... almost." The end comes a few years later, when the town is attacked by the marauder "Gentleman" Brown. Although Brown and his gang are driven off, Dain Waris, the son of the leader of the Bugis community, is slain. Jim continues the conflict and ultimately fulfills his heroic destiny by suffering a fatal bullet in the heart.
Jim is ultimately seen as a misguided fool - he had long dreamed and romanced of heroic adventures, with himself at the centre of the action. It is this illusion combined with his enduring shame that forces him to be ever (and unrealistically) true to himself, with the predictable tragic consequences. His endless pursuit of redemption succeeds only in wasting his life.
[edit] Allusions/references from other works
Jim's ill-fated ship, the Patna is also mentioned in Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Immortal." (NB. Patna becomes Patria with a bit of paint peeled from the "n")
Lord Jim is the name of a boat, and subsequently the nickname of the boat's owner, Richard Blake, in Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prize-Winning Novel Offshore.
[edit] Film adaptations
The book has twice been adapted for film:
- Lord Jim (1925), directed by Victor Fleming.
- Lord Jim (1965), directed by Richard Brooks and starring Peter O'Toole as Lord Jim.
[edit] External links
- Lord Jim, available at Project Gutenberg..
- The Literary Encyclopedia
- "Stephen Crane as a Source for Conrad's Jim", Nina Galen, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 38, no. 1 (1983).
- Biography of Conrad by Deborah Lindsay Williams
