Joseph Conrad 
Lord Jim 

‘Lord Jim’, Conrad’s most famous work published in 1900, is also his most extensive examination of a persistent theme: the conflict between an individual’s inner moral code and his or her outward actions. 

They say we never really know ourselves until a crisis comes, that it is in those split-second, life-or-death decisions that we discover who we really are. Are we brave? Are we cowardly? Something better, or maybe worse? These are the questions upon which Joseph Conrad’s novel, ‘Lord Jim’, center.

Considered to be one of the most important novels in all of English literature, ‘Lord Jim’ tackles those dark questions that haunt the human spirit, questions we dare not admit to ourselves, let alone to others. It explores the nature of courage, the enduring impact of mistakes made in an instant, the indifference of the universe, the complexities of speaking one’s truth, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing oneself or another.



As a young boy learning the sailor’s craft, Jim is certain he will meet the test of moral courage, but later, while serving as a first mate on the
Patna, an old, unseaworthy steamer carrying Muslim pilgrims across the Indian Ocean, he fails the test. The
Patna strikes an unknown object in the night and seems ready to sink. The crew, including Jim, abandons the ship and its passengers. When the drifting Patna is discovered and the events are revealed, Jim becomes an outcast, both literally and morally…