Lord Jim

I have meant to read this for years as something of a"classic" so was surprised when what started as an interesting premis slowly turned into wordy drivel. It's rare for me to give up on a book, but the further you get into it, the less credible the dialogue gets & the story actually loses it's way too. Very surprised after all I'd heard about this book. Emperors clothes syndrome from those who rave about it I suspect. Give it a miss & use the valuable reading time on something else!

On first reading, I thought of this as a wonderful evocation of an era when normal men thought very differently to us, but "Lord" Jim is not a normal man. The story is stupefyingly (or stultifyingly, depending) faithful to Jim's characterisation, at times almost labouring to convey the intensity of his feelings, making it a hard read, but immensely rewarding. The 1965 film (with Peter O'Toole) focussed much more on the Boy's Own Adventure aspects like the final battle for the island, and doesn't capture the feeling of the novel. I missed it - a lot of readers will not. If you haven't read any Conrad before, go for "Heart of Darkness", which is incredibly readable.

A previous critic complained that this novel was too rambling, but that is the esssence of its attraction. Marlow, the narrator, unearths little bits if Jim's subsequent life as he sails around the world, and thus the story is told in chapters. It also keeps us hooked, and somehow we know what the inevitable conclusion Will be. And it makes you ask the question: "what would I have done?"