Lord Jim

I have meant to read this for years as something of a"classic" so was surprised when what started as an interesting premis slowly turned into wordy drivel. It's rare for me to give up on a book, but the further you get into it, the less credible the dialogue gets & the story actually loses it's way too. Very surprised after all I'd heard about this book. Emperors clothes syndrome from those who rave about it I suspect. Give it a miss & use the valuable reading time on something else!

. This is one of the best books ever written.(Conrad hated superlatives, but he sort of admits in the Preface this is a favorite of his books) It is a tough slog so here's a great way to read this book: Get the download or the CD of the book. Listen to the audio for awhile, then pick up where you left off listening and start reading the book, when it gets too dense, go back to the audio, then read again.Part of the reason it's so dense is the lushness of the language matched only by the depth of insight. As the other comment said, this is a very rewarding book, but hard to get through. The audio -visual method is also my solution to James because of his insanely long sentences. I listened and read What Maisie Knew. james is actually a great story teller (The Turn of The Screw) but he makes you work (too hard) for it with his method.

On first reading, I thought of this as a wonderful evocation of an era when normal men thought very differently to us, but "Lord" Jim is not a normal man. The story is stupefyingly (or stultifyingly, depending) faithful to Jim's characterisation, at times almost labouring to convey the intensity of his feelings, making it a hard read, but immensely rewarding. The 1965 film (with Peter O'Toole) focussed much more on the Boy's Own Adventure aspects like the final battle for the island, and doesn't capture the feeling of the novel. I missed it - a lot of readers will not. If you haven't read any Conrad before, go for "Heart of Darkness", which is incredibly readable.