I Read Books: Lord Jim

 

Lord Jim

Jim, an Englishman, decides to become a sailor, is trained up to be an officer and sets out. Injured, he’s left behind in a hospital somewhere in south east Asia. When he recovers he takes a position on the Patna, an old ship in poor shape, carrying pilgrims to Mecca. On the journey the ship collides with something; the forward bulkhead looks like it will fail at any moment. Jim wants to try and get as many passengers on the boats as possible, but the captain, spotting a squall coming up and thinking panic will swamp all the boats, leaves them sleeping and abandons ship with two other crew, leaving the (non-White) helmsmen. In the confusion, one of the engineers falls and knocks himself out. Jim goes to find the Captain, sees him and the others in the boat and they, thinking him the engineer, call on him to jump. In a moment of weakness he does, abandoning the Patna to her fate.

Her fate is to be sighted by a French warship and towed – backwards, carefully to prevent the forward bulkhead from bursting, under the supervision of a French lieutenant who does not mind telling how risky it is – to port in Aden*. There is a court of inquiry, which is attended by narrator Captain Marlow. One of the ship’s captains who make up the court is Brierly, a bright young captain of a respectable line of ships, who has, however, never faced anything half so serious. Marlow, who does not think of himself as anything special, of no particular virtue, is struck by the incident***, that the villainous captain and his cronies might fail in their duty and the customs of the sea perhaps, but for Jim to fall is extraordinary. Brierly in particular thinks it appalling that Jim stays to face the court of inquiry, it would be better for him to vanish like the other crew members.

The court reaches it’s inevitable conclusion and Jim’s certificate to sail (along with the others) is cancelled. Jim, having done his duty, is taken in by Marlow. Although Marlow cannot condone what Jim has done, he is intrigued and sympathetic. After a long period of thought Jim agrees to take Marlow up on an offer of a job with a man he knows, away from the sea in south east Asia. Oddly it is Brierly who cannot stand what has happened; Marlow later gets the full story from his first mate, about how Brierly ended up killing himself****.

Jim gets on well with the man he’s sent to until one of then engineers of the Patna arrives to work on the mill there. Unable to stand the shame Jim moves on, becoming the water clerk for a ship’s chandler. He does well there until one day the topic of the Patna comes up and a captain disapproves of the gossip, saying it’s a serious matter; the chandler declares that no one here would do anything like that after which Jim leaves again.

Eventually Marlow finds him a place so removed from the world that he will never hear about the Patna. His old friend Stein has a factor in Patusan, a remote upriver district on a remote island, ruled by a Rajah, a relative of the island chief, and otherwise cut off. When he arrives it turns out it’s not that cut off; there’s also a bandit who is terrorising the area. Jim finds himself captured by the Rajah but escapes, and joins with a group of Bugis people. With their assistance he gets hold of some cannon and bombards the bandit camp, making himself their leader. Although the Rajah is jealous and the old factor distrustful (all the goods are missing) Jim is acclaimed “Tuan” or Lord; he also takes up with Jewel, the stepdaughter of the old factor.

The final part Marlow again learns partially, in several ways from several voices; the conclusion comes in the form of a letter sometime after he finishes his yarn (and glass of mineral water). “Gentleman Brown” a rogue of a captain is captured running guns in the Philippines; he and his crew escape but without supplies. He has a plan to take the ship to Madagascar and sell it there but they need food and water. Trying to avoid authorities they strike at remote Patusan, only to find themselves cut off. Jim is absent; when he returns he tries to negotiate their withdrawal without bloodshed. Brown can’t believe that Jim is for real, assuming that he is either plundering the district and planning to leave or possibly hiding out here; in any case he escapes with the aid of the old factor (who he betrays), though not without shooting some of the defenders including the son of the Bugis chief. Jim, having pledged to avoid all bloodshed, admits responsibility to the chief, who shoots him.

Marlow, and obviously Conrad, circle around the events not just because this was the style – this could have been organised in chronological order by event or as reports arrived, could have followed threads or characters (or ships) and still be a rambling narrative. It’s discursive because it is an attempt by Marlow to make sense of this, of how Jim came to fail as a sailor and a man despite all the advantages of training, character and race*****; and how he was effected by this and attempted in various ways to make up for that failure.

Read This: Sea-faring tale of exotic adventures, courage and failure
Don’t Read This: Rambling, occasionally confused, very racist
While You’re At It: There was a film version that streamlined the plot

 

* The long middle section of the novel is narrated by Marlow, who takes a long time** to get to the point of what happened. He talks around it

** In the introduction Conrad suggests that Marlow’s yarn, though long, might have taken three hours of an evening, perhaps with the aid of a glass of mineral water. The length of the audiobook version suggests that not only is he wrong, he’s pulling our leg.

*** As are other sailors, it’s discussed for years in ports across the world, hence Marlow’s long narration and other incidents later in the novel.

**** Marlow tells the story out of order, and out of the order he learned what occurred, this section in particular circles and heads off on tangents before returning. The first mate had a lot to say about Brierly, expanding on Marlow’s description, and about the letter Brierly left behind commending the first mate, which the company and new captain ignored, leading him to take another job, and ending up in a remote port talking to Marlow.

***** The book’s inconsistent yet insistent characterisation of people and peoples according to their racial make up reflects views of the time coloured by Conrad’s own experiences as a traveler