Rating: 
Summary: Great tale from a timeless master!
Review: This is a gem of a novel by Conrad.The core of all is the relationship between Jim feelings of guiltness and the reality surrounding him.Every attempt to reach redemption by Jim is constantly frustated by his own unforgiviness toward himself that in the end leads him to a noble but senseless death.It seems that Conrad suggests to us that reaching perfection is less important than learn to accept ourselves as we are.Nature and society in Conrad vision are terrible forces totally indifferent of individual feelings.What is left to man in this doomed struggle is a kind of heroicity in going on the same.The novel is also masterful in the use of a narrator voice which permits to assist to the developement of the tale from an "external" but personal point of view.The writing style of Conrad is very powerful and fascinating .5 stars for this terrific novel!
Rating: 
Summary: Conrad's novel of guilt, atonement, and self-absolution.
Review: This is one of those books that anybody who has been throughhigh school should have been exposed (or at least exposed to the CliffNotes on the novel). I remember being assigned this book as a junior or senior and bluffing my way through without really reading it. I even got a literature degree without reading it. Finally, after many years, I felt that I should give the novel its due, and picked up a copy.The novel is the story of Jim, an overly romantic seaman, who during a moment of crisis loses his courage. He is first mate on a pilgrim ship bound for Mecca and after the ship collides with an unseen object and is in danger of sinking, he abandons ship leaving the human cargo to fend for its own. He is dogged by his guilt and spends years drifting around the East trying to find the right occasion by which he might redeem himself. Eventually he ends up in the forests of Malaysia where he becomes a god-like protector of the indigenous people and is given the title of "Lord." But no matter how successful Jim might appear to his followers, and to the omnipresent narrator of the novel, he still cannot forget his moment of weakness. Jim's self-centeredness prevents him from moving forward with his life and condemns him to a life of voluntary exile, all the time proclaiming that he is not good enough to live in the outside world. He is willing to risk all future happiness and fortune to be able to face his demons once again without losing his nerves. Ironically, it is his last "heroic" act that destroys all the good that Jim has painstakingly built up, essentially bringing chaos to his Eden like world. Published at the very beginning of the twentieth century, Lord Jim, in many ways anticipated the experimental writing techniques that would be brought to fruition in the works of Joyce, Faulkner, and others. Conrad is not only interested in telling a tale, he is interested in different points of view, nonlinear narrative techniques, and solving the complexities inherent in a "tale within a tale" formula. Although some readers might find Conrad's prose a little tedious, perseverence and careful reading will reveal passages of unexpected beauty that will cause the reader to pause -- then slowly re-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: Ugh. This might have been a good book if it were half the size, but Conrad strains to keep the plot going amid the endless descriptions of sea, sky, and the characters' states of mind. Move along, move along! This ancient icon may be a monument to Conrad's mastery of his second language, and it may be a tragic psychological exploration of the universal heroic destiny (or something equally dense), but listening to it doesn't exactly keep you on the edge of your seat.
Rating:
Summary: A Little Hard to Follow for a Timeless Classic
Review: Perhaps it is the nineteenth century writing style or the nautical terminology, but the pronoun-laced conversational passages have left me wondering who was on first, or who was the first mate. Conrad was a pathbreaker in the subjects he treated and no doubt had interesting experiences, but I prefer his other works.
Rating:
Summary: Conrad probes life's inscrutable mysteries
Review: Among the world's treasures of the imagination. Here's to you, Jim. Here's to the romantic idealist in us all.
Rating:
Summary: A Gem
Review: Jim is one of the great romantic characters in all of world literature. Like Hamlet, like all romantic idealists, he thinks too much. He imagines things so perfectly that he cannot act at all, until too late when his imaginings are seen in their true, misleading form. "There is only one remedy!" observes the character Stein, for the romantic disease. "One thing alone can us from being ourselves cure!...A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns...No! I tell you! The way is to the destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands and feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up..." Conrad is always ambiguous and a bit melodramatic, but he is really good at creating moods and casting spells with language. He is a mesmerizing writer who weaves complex layers into his narratives as he probes life's "inscrutible mysteries." Lord Jim is one of his best. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Marvellous literary craftsmanship
Review: Penetrating psychological insights, masculine prose, tense, gripping adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: i liked it fairly well...
Review: I read Lord Jim for my philosophy of literature class. I am not going to comment on modernists. Nor will I comment at length on how Conrad learned English as a second language and how vasty impressed I am with his wizardry of words (although I am impressed). I wanted to say to Conrads credit, that I was impressed with Jim's character, meaning his personality. Although he did spend a fair amount of time brooding (that dosen't give anything away) he had good reson. I think that while the guilt for what he did rests in his mind he does manage to get on with it and regain his life. I worry that readers might not fully consider the complexitys of the narrator, Marlo, who is a facinating character in his own right. So to anyone who has yet to read the novel, I would recommend that you make note of Marlo as more than just a narrator as you pass through. If you read it already take a minuite while you're waiting in traffic or riding the bus, or what have you, and recall Marlo as a character. I hope you find him interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't hang together
Review: Conrad has amazing skill and confidence with the English language for a man that learned it as a second language. The vocabulary and style are astounding. However, the plot did not hold together. The first and second parts were very distinct and did not seem to be part of the same story. The ending redeemed the plot to an extent, but not enough. Conrad himself said that the book started out as a short story; that is exactly how it seemed.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Conrad, a man who learned English as a second language, shows an immense skill and confidence with it. His style and story is very interesting throughout the first half, but as soon as Jim enters Patusan, it falls apart. Jim tries to hard to love Jewel and to be accepted by his new community. Conrad would have done better to have stopped sometime after Marlowe's original discussions with Jim. Conrad originally intended to make his idea into a short story, and that is how it should have been.
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