The author, Joseph Conrad was a Polish born English novelist who today is most famous for his novel "Heart of Darkness". This is a fictionalized account of Colonial Africa, originally published as a serial in Blackwood's magazine from October 1899 to November 1990.
This novel "Lord Jim" is the story of a man named Marlow's struggle to tell and to understand the life story of a young man named Jim. When Jim is serving aboard a vessel called the Patna, carrying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, the ship strikes an underwater object and springs a leak. The crew abandon ship and take the lifeboat. Jim joins them on the lifeboat. A trial follows and Jim attempts to come to terms with himself and his past.
At our book club meeting the novel "Lord Jim"produced a great deal of lively discussion and strong opinions about Jim's character.
JUDY D:
This is the story of a young British man who has done quite well. He becomes a captain's mate on a small steamboat carrying 800 pilgrims. The crew take the lifeboat and abandon ship when the boat hits rocks. Jim thinks of himself as a good man but decides to jump in the lifeboat as well. Judy said it was a good story but very depressing. She said it was beautifully written but too wordy. She found going back and forth with the story a bit confusing.
ED:
Ed only read up to Chapter 5. She couldn't get into it and wasn't really interested.
CONNIE:
Connie read the whole book and said the writing was extremely good. She enjoyed the descriptions.
She felt the whole thing hung on the case that Jim was a coward. The story line itself wasn't as important as the thoughts and ideas of Marlow himself who was telling the story. Connie said she would have enjoyed it more years ago. She said the end dragged out a bit.
ROSEMARIE:
She read a small amount and agreed with Connie that it would be better to read in one block.
JULIA:
She liked his actual style of writing. Julia read it at school.
CLAURENE:
Claurene found it unappealing and doesn't like books that use five words instead of two words. She went back to it later and read to page 65 but still didn't like the book.
SHEILA:
She read 70 pages in one sitting. She got the gist of the story before he went to court but decided not to go any further.
PRUE:
Prue said the author wasn't fluent in English until his late teens, early 20's. This story was considered psychological modernism. Marlow is the narrator in several books. This story is about the relationship of Marlow to Jim and what he thought of Jim. In the court trial they didn't want Jim's story, only the facts. One of the judges committed suicide as he didn't agree with the way the court was run. The book explores what shame does to people. Prue found it very descriptive with lots of different structures which made it a bit confusing.
WENDY L:
She didn't think she would enjoy it but once she got into it she did enjoy it, although she had to read the first 100 pages twice. The themes were guilt, morality and honour. Jim was a flawed character, an idealist but tragic. It's a real psychological study of Jim. She found it difficult to read. Apparently the author used an artistic tool called delayed decoding meaning ambiguities in the earlier part of the book that were explained later.
JUDY A:
It's basically a story about a man called Marlow struggling to understand a man called Jim. When Judy understood about Marlow she felt better about the book. She read the whole book but didn't like Jim. "The book was okay but it was a labour and not a labour of love" Judy said.
JOAN:
Joan read it all. She found it hard going initially. The story is in two parts. The first part is very difficult. It's about Jim's sea experiences. Joan got tired and impatient reading the first part and said there was too much over analysis. The second part had wonderful descriptive passages.
TAM:
Tam found it hard to read but she challenged herself and made herself finish the book. She wondered if the author Joseph Conrad just used a theme to explore "how do we handle a guilty conscience". He explores the fact that you can't get away from the inner turmoil despite how far you go. She felt Jim had a deep inner compass. Tam said she would read another one of his books.
VAL:
Val agreed with so much that was said. She read it at school and thoroughly enjoyed it but found it more difficult to read now. She was struggling with it but is definitely going to finish the book. She said it had some lovely phrases.
CHARIS:
Despite the author saying he ultimately wrote Lord Jim as a novel which was serialized over a year as 13 segments in a magazine, he wrote Jim's story in segments outlined by the characters who had met him and had something to contribute to the story of the mariner's life. In the last page of the book Conrad writes of Jim having a "shadowy ideal of conduct" and "one ready to surrender himself faithfully to the claim of his own world of shades". Charis said the writing was dated, and each sentence has to be considered, not skimmed, so it's reading takes time. She found herself re-reading paragraphs wondering if she had fully understood the meaning, and at the same time thinking the writing was good.
DIANN:
Diann felt the author was writing to a very well educated audience. She said she had read it at fourteen with a History and English teacher breaking it down with them. She didn't like the book. She found it very heavy.
PAMELA:
Pamela liked this book but said it was important to mention what hadn't been said. Right from the beginning Lord Jim liked holiday reading, tales of heroic deeds and he saw himself this way. He was a dreamer. He has a position on a steamship carrying 800 pilgrims, men, women, children and babies. He holds himself aloof from the captain and the rest of the crew. He thinks they are scum and sees himself as superior. When the crew abandons ship in the lifeboat, Jim decides to go with them but later blames them that they made him jump. Pamela also feels Marlow is not a reliable narrator as he makes excuses for Lord Jim.
BEV:
Bev read HEART OF DARKNESS as she couldn't get a copy of Lord Jim. She liked it and said it was a good book. Marlow was also the narrator in this story. It explored the treatment of native people in the Congo and the subject of slavery.
Kris
In JUNE we will be reading books by the author Danielle Steele
In JULY we will be reading books by Alex Miller. We have a choice of four books as follows:
Lovesong ~ Passage of Love ~ Journey to the Stone Country ~ Autumn Laing
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