Lord Jim

Lord Jim--------------------------------------------------To the white men in the waterside business and to the captain of shipshe was just Jim - nothing more. He had, of course, another name, buthe was anxious that it should not be pronounced.' Lord Jim tells thestory of a young, idealistic Englishman - 'as unflinching as a heroin a book' - who is disgraced by a single act of cowardice while servingas an officer on the Patna, a merchant-ship sailing from an Easternport. His life is blighted: an isolated scandal assumes horrifyingproportions. An older man, Marlow, befriends Jim, and helps to establishhim in Patusan, a remote Malay settlement. There he achieves a kindof peace, but his courage is put to the test once more. Lord Jim isone of the most profound and rewarding psychological novels in English.Set in the context of social change and colonial expansion in lateVictorian England, it embodies in Jim the values and the turmoil ofa fading empire. In his introduction and notes to this new editionJacques Berthoud explores the social and cultural dynamics that informthe novel.