A Study Guide for Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535827614

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Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad

1900

Introduction

Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, first published in England in 1900, has long been acknowledged as a very difficult book for readers to understand, especially on the first read. However, those who have taken the time to understand the book acknowledge that the effort is worth it. Lord Jim, which Conrad began as a short sketch, grew into a novel that is widely recognized for its modernism—its tendency to buck the conventional narrative trends of its day. The most obvious technique that Conrad used was a shifting form of narration, in which the reader hears a tale first from one narrator, then another, and finally from several disparate accounts.

Like many Conrad novels, this book features autobiographical elements from Conrad's own naval past. The story concerns a young man named Jim, who undertakes the training to become a naval officer, but his certificate is revoked when he deserts his ship during a crisis, leaving eight hundred Moslem pilgrims to what he thinks is a certain death—although the pilgrims live to tell the tale of his cowardice. Jim continually runs from this past, eventually to Patusan, a remote island in the Far East. Here, Jim starts fresh, earning the respect of the natives, who call him Lord Jim and attribute his many successes to supernatural powers. Jim must face the fears from his old life, however, and his ability to finally do this leads to the novel's tragic and ambiguous ending. Conrad's tale is so complex and open to individual interpretation that many critics have noted that the book has no one meaning and that it is all based on a paradox. However, this ambiguity has captivated readers for over a hundred years, and since its publication, many have regarded the book as Conrad's best.

Author Biography

Conrad was born Teodor Józef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in the Polish Ukraine. He was an only child to his parents. His father, Apollo Nalecz, was mainly a poet and translator throughout his life. His mother, Ewa Bobrowska Korzeniowski, was a frail woman, who had come from a good family. Throughout his life, Conrad experienced loss, alienation, and rejection. This trend began with the loss of his parents during childhood. His father allegedly took part in anti-Russian activities and was sent into exile in northern Russia. Together the family endured exile in a harsh land of scarcity and illness, until Conrad's mother died of tuberculosis, sending his father into deep depression. Conrad was sent to his uncle's, and his father died four years later, a profound event in the young Conrad's life.

After receiving his education in Poland, Conrad took a trip through Europe and decided not to return to his