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Lord Jim

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Lord Jim

By: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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About this listen

 This work set the style for a whole class of literature, a work that the critic Morton Dauwen Zabel calls an example of Conrad's "central theme...the grip of circumstances that enforce self-discovery and its cognate, the discovery of reality and truth...." It is a novel about a man's lifelong efforts to atone for an act of instinctive cowardice. The young Jim, chief mate of the Patna, dreams of being a hero. When the Patna threatens to sink and the cowardly officers decide to save their own skins and escape in the few lifeboats, Jim despises them. But at the last moment, dazed by horror and confusion, he joins them, deserting the passengers - 800 Muslim pilgrims - to apparent death. Tormented by this act of cowardice and desertion, Jim flees to the West. Living among the natives in Patusan, a remote trading post in the jungle, he is able to cease sacrificing himself on the altar of conscience. When he defends Patusan against the evil "Gentleman Brown," his efforts create order and well-being, thereby winning the respect and affection of the people for whom he becomes Tuan - or Lord Jim.(P)1993 by Blackstone Audiobooks Classics European Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Psychological World Literature Fiction Scary
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My father gave me the complete works of Joseph Conrad for my 21st birthday, and over the 30 odd years since then, I must have read Lord Jim 4-5 times as well as listened to it on audio twice. Each time I have got something different from the book. When I was young, I was tremendously attracted to the strange mixture of Lord Jim's intensely romantic and mysterious nature; this last time, I could not help musing about the clash that always seems to occur between a person's inner world and the world we all live in, and the ultimate futility of acts of honour.

All that said, I can well understand that the book would not be everyone's cup of tea - my wife tried reading it a couple of times but gave up! But if you enjoy psychologically intense, analytical novels, you might give this a try - the prose flows so well and Conrad wraps you up in his intensely drawn world with such skill. I am always amazed that english is not his native language.

Lord Jim is particularly suited as an audiobook as much of it consists of Marlowe's own narration of Lord Jim's tale. Frederick Davidson does a superb job; his natural ironic and acerbic style is perfectly suited to to book; his delivery and his judgment of pace, character and mood are perfect.

I loved it and I am sure I will be listening to it again.

a psychologically intense read

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