Lord Jim

Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs up!
Review: I'm sailing towards the neverending........

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Dilemma???
Review: This story is in an interesting perspective in that Conrad uses a new way of writting style that is hard for some to grasp. Others find the style a strong new challenge for readers. I consider it a strong novel with an interesting plot, but not one of the turning points of America. It's just a book.

Rating:
Summary: Literary Impressionism Leaves Something to be Desired...
Review: Conrad's mundane tale of the human condition is an example of literary impressionism at it's most infuriating peak. The author consciously avoids the statement of fact, only hinting at events that transpire. It requires a great deal of focus to read and leaves one feeling unsatisfied, as nothing is told, outright, to the reader. It's also a very difficult book to be tested on; the "tale within a tale" format makes it tough to comprehend who is actually narrating.

Rating:
Summary: instructive
Review: lord jim's tale is a lesson to us all. if someone puts you in charge of hundreds of people's lives you can't just run away and leave them to die. so jim was puniched for his cowardly actions. also, he ran way when he was young,too, so this means that people dont ever really change their personalities. this is pretty true, too. i just wish jospeh conrad could have said this a bit quicker and used simpler words -- as he learnt english as a foreigner nobody ever told him not to memorize the dictionary. the story is also outof date, as nobody uses those kind of boats any more. maybe it could be updated -- made about a truck-driver or something who abandons his cargo, or a school-bus driver or somebody like that. then they could make a movie of it and we wouldn't be forced to study it in class.

Rating:
Summary: One of Conrad's Finest
Review: Lord Jim is the story of a young ship's officer who makes an inexplicable mistake. Branded a coward and stripped of his license as a sailor, Jim is unable to bear the stigma attached to his life for a brief moment of cowardice. Jim seeks redemption on a small Malay island, only to fail for what one of the characters calls, "...a shred of meaningless honor...". A truly great work of fiction, Lord Jim is linguistically an easier read than other of Conrad's sea works, but is just as deep. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: A troubling irony...
Review: Of Conrad's style in Lord Jim, I will say simply that it is a shining example of a master craftsman at the height of his art-form. Besides the stylistic triumphs, what makes this novel so wonderful is the central irony which balances itself upon the peak of morality. Is this novel a song of heroic redemption, or the sad dirge of a soul which tortured itself? Conrad certainly made it both. After a life of torturing himself, for his percieved cowardice and shortcomings, Jim recieves a chance at redemption. For his lonely display of honor and bravery, he recieves a bullet in the chest. Yet, what was his other option? He could run from his toubles again and choose life. The reward for this action, another start somewhere else where he would torture himself the rest of his life or until he failed again, and everytime he starts over an even greater weight is placed upon his soul. In the end, Jim had no choice. He was compelled to act because the alternative of the life of escape which he had been living was already worse than the death his actions would invite. In this conflict, Conrad displays the true murderer of Jim. The morality which was forced upon him since birth. Unable to live with the guilt any longer, Jim chooses suicide. Where, does the guilt come from. Who could not see Jim as anything but a relatively "good" man who had his own failings like all of humanity. Did he deserved to be tortured his entire life for them? What does that say about our own morality?

Rating:
Summary: How can you read this thing?
Review: I am a Sophomore being forced to read this difficult and virtually impossible book for class. It's downright dull and far too difficult for me to comprehend while I'm trying to make deadlines at a pace of 3 minutes a page! Joseph Conrad should have tried speaking English!

Rating:
Summary: Solemnity Galore
Review: Conrad was 43 when he wrote this novel, number 4 on the official "A"-List of the Fireside Reading Club. A wonderful book. Very hard to read, requiring great concentration and continuous rereading of certain pages until things become clear. He writes in a very strange manner, with tales within tales, and continually giving the results of actions before we know what the actions are, so that we are forever mistakenly under the impression we've missed something. Nevertheless, a great, solemn and wonderful book with a nicely ambiguous ending. For instance, what would Jim have done if Doramin had turned down the chance to shoot him? It would appear he would have "jumped" once more, starting the chain of self-loathing and guilt all over again, though presumably in not as extreme a manner this time. It's a great novel about guilt, innocence and betrayal, and how betrayal and guilt become easier to handle with time, and innocence can create the breeding ground for both. This of course is a great simplification. Glad I decided to take a break and watch the film version of Lord Jim half way through reading the book, for although the film is not all that faithful to the book, the young Peter O'Toole is absolutely perfect as Jim. I gave a friend a brief synopsis of Lord Jim and she said it sounded like The Red Badge of Courage (which I haven't read, and, since it misses being twentieth century by five years, I probably never will). There appears to be a Dickens connection or two in Lord Jim - Cornelius is very much drawn after Uriah Heep in David Copperfield, and Conrad's habit of breaking up dialogue with dashes is very Dickensian, as well as being highly unnatural. There is also a lot of Buddhism in Conrad, but then again there is in most great novelists, and sometimes even the not-so-great.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Novel!
Review: Conrad has a wonderful writing style. He has a masterful way of stringing together events with an eloquent writing style. Not many could knit the two sections of this book together in a single story.

Rating:
Summary: great plot, extremely confusing
Review: Lord Jim had all the key elements for an extremely interesting story, love/ murder/ adventure, but quickly loses the reader with the confusing writing style. It is hard to know who is talking and Jim's personality or looks are only discussed in the first two senetences of the story. I believe that if Conrad had lightened his style a little bit it could have been a much better novel.