Lord Jim
Disgraced sailor's redemption
Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1900.
It follows a young British seaman who abandons a ship full of pilgrims during an apparent crisis, then spends the rest of his life seeking redemption for this moment of cowardice.
The title has become shorthand for someone haunted by a single moral failure: He's been a Lord Jim ever since the scandal, trying to prove himself.
- ConradMale given name
- MarlowEnglish river town
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
- seaSaltwater body, not ocean
- sailorSeafaring crew member
Joseph Conrad · honor · redemption · guilt · cowardice · Patna · jumping ship · jungle · courage · shame · exile · colonial · colonial outpost · tragedy · romantic · captain · abandonment · inner struggle
- nauticalanchor, anchor chain, anchors, boat, boats
- Maritime BooksMoby Dick, Master and Commander, Treasure Island, Captains Courageous, The Sea Wolf
- seafarerssailor, seaman, mariner, able seaman, merchant seaman
- 1900s LiteratureThe Time Machine, War of the Worlds, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray
- British novelsPride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist
- Colonial LiteratureHeart of Darkness, Kim, The Jungle Book, King Solomon's Mines, Robinson Crusoe
Lord JimSir Galahad
Paragon of chivalric purity
Odysseus · Atticus Finch · Beowulf · Hector · Roland
Lord JimTreasure Island
Adventure tale with pirates
Robinson Crusoe · Master and Commander · success story · Jason and the Argonauts · the Odyssey
lord, lords, lordly, lordship, lordships, overlord, landlord, Jim, jimmy