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A review by andrew61
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
3.0
An incredibly difficult read which at times felt like wading through treacle. Whether that is Conrad's prose style or my inadequacies I don't know but certainly I struggled with the book.
However there is within the story much of interest as we meet jim, a young merchant shipman who having grown up the son of a clergyman seeks adventure on the seas. Unfortunately one of his first trips sees him become scapegoat as a storm leads to crew abandoning the boat The Patna leaving hundreds of muslims going on pilgrimage stranded in the hold. during the subsequent inquiry he meets the narrator Marlow who befriends him and through Marlow we follow Jim's later adventures which see him flit from job to job as his infamy follows him before landing on a Eastern peninsula where he is treated as the 'Lord' of the title before a band of pirates take battle with the natives.
The prose is dense but the story is an interesting one particularly as it has so many similarities to 'heart of Darkness' in its picture of a white man who becomes god like to the natives he invades, yet it is the corruption of the white invaders that ultimately destroys. Similarly Marlow is narrator of both books and the narrative seems to follow much of Conrad's own life story.
Certainly I've read Heart of Darkness a couple of times and found the style difficult although recall The Secret Agent as being more accessible.
An interesting read and certainly I am perhaps more interested in the writers life than venturing any further into his writing.
However there is within the story much of interest as we meet jim, a young merchant shipman who having grown up the son of a clergyman seeks adventure on the seas. Unfortunately one of his first trips sees him become scapegoat as a storm leads to crew abandoning the boat The Patna leaving hundreds of muslims going on pilgrimage stranded in the hold. during the subsequent inquiry he meets the narrator Marlow who befriends him and through Marlow we follow Jim's later adventures which see him flit from job to job as his infamy follows him before landing on a Eastern peninsula where he is treated as the 'Lord' of the title before a band of pirates take battle with the natives.
The prose is dense but the story is an interesting one particularly as it has so many similarities to 'heart of Darkness' in its picture of a white man who becomes god like to the natives he invades, yet it is the corruption of the white invaders that ultimately destroys. Similarly Marlow is narrator of both books and the narrative seems to follow much of Conrad's own life story.
Certainly I've read Heart of Darkness a couple of times and found the style difficult although recall The Secret Agent as being more accessible.
An interesting read and certainly I am perhaps more interested in the writers life than venturing any further into his writing.