Lord Jim Analysis

Lord Jim is technically a British novel, though almost none of the novel's action takes place in Jolly Old England. This novel really belongs more to the British empire, specifically Southeast Asia...

We'll just level with you here: the narrative technique of Lord Jim is confusing to say the least. Third Person… Sort ofFirst, we have Marlow, who is the main narrator of the novel. But as he tel...

AdventureAt first glance, Lord Jim might not seem like adventure material. Frankly, the bulk of the novel involves people sitting around and talking. Of course it's what they're talking about that...

Because Lord Jim is told by Marlow, the tone of the entire novel pretty much depends on how he is feeling and thinking at any given moment. Thinking is the key word here. Marlow has a tendency to p...

45 Chapters on the Elliptical MachineThis novel is teeming with ellipses, you know – the good ol' dot-dot-dot? Characters are forever trailing off, lost in their thoughts, unable to express what...

Lord Jim is about, well Lord Jim, so Conrad doesn't win any points for originality there.Or does he? When we first begin to read the novel, it's clear that Jim is not a Lord, and probably won't be...

"It is certain my Conviction gains infinitely, the moment another soul will believe in it." – NovalisNovalis? Who? Nope, he's not some Greek philosopher or Roman poet. Novalis is the pen name of...

This is the novel that just won't end. Conrad seemed to have some issues with wrapping things up, and his big finale draws out longer than an Academy Award acceptance speech. There's at least one e...

To be perfectly honest, reading this book is no easy cruise. Conrad was never one to write a perfectly chronological book, and Lord Jim is no exception. There are flashbacks, flashbacks within flas...

Setting SailIn the present, Marlow starts to tell Jim's story. In that story, Jim starts his career as a sailor, and appears to be pretty darn successful, at least for the time being.Rough Waters A...

Seafaring and StorytellingJim begins his career at sea and Marlow begins telling his story. Though Jim shows a lot of promise early on, we start getting hints about impending doom from the get-go.W...

Marlow begins to tell us the story of Jim, a young upstart sailor with tons of promise. But that promise soon fades when Jim commits the scandalous act of abandoning ship aboard the Patna and goes...

Conrad didn't start out as a writer. He worked for years as a sailor and didn't publish his first novel until he was 38 years old, in 1895. That book was Almayer's Folly. (Source.)Many people found...

Jim and Jewel definitely bring a little romance to the book, but it's nothing too explicit. In fact we barely see them interacting together, which means that sex is nowhere to be found in this book.

"pilgrims in the valley," reference to Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan (5.1)Parsees, Zoroastrian sect (5.3)"sword [...] imaginative head," reference to the Greek myth of Damocles (8.15)"to bind and...