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Lord Jim & Nostromo
With a new introduction by Robert D. Kaplan.
Commentary by Virginia Woolf, Harold Bloom, Edward Said, F.R. Leavis, and Robert Penn Warren.
Originally published in 1900, Lord Jim is one of Joseph Conrad's most complex literary masterpieces. The story of a young sailor whose moment of cowardice haunts him for the rest of his life, Lord Jim explores Conrad's lifelong obsessions with the nature of guilt and the possibility of redemption.
Nostromo is considered by many to be Conrad's supreme achievement, and Conrad himself referred to Nostromo as his "widest canvas." Set in the fictitious South American republic of Costaguana, Nostromo reveals the effects that misguided idealism, unparalleled greed, and imperialist interests can have on a fledging nation. V. S. Pritchett wrote: "Nostromo is the most strikingly modern of Conrad's novels. It is pervaded by a profound, even morbid sense of insecurity which is the very spirit of our age."
Robert D. Kaplan's Introduction explains why the two novels together form Conrad's darkest glimpse into the flawed nature of humankind.
Commentary by Virginia Woolf, Harold Bloom, Edward Said, F.R. Leavis, and Robert Penn Warren.
Originally published in 1900, Lord Jim is one of Joseph Conrad's most complex literary masterpieces. The story of a young sailor whose moment of cowardice haunts him for the rest of his life, Lord Jim explores Conrad's lifelong obsessions with the nature of guilt and the possibility of redemption.
Nostromo is considered by many to be Conrad's supreme achievement, and Conrad himself referred to Nostromo as his "widest canvas." Set in the fictitious South American republic of Costaguana, Nostromo reveals the effects that misguided idealism, unparalleled greed, and imperialist interests can have on a fledging nation. V. S. Pritchett wrote: "Nostromo is the most strikingly modern of Conrad's novels. It is pervaded by a profound, even morbid sense of insecurity which is the very spirit of our age."
Robert D. Kaplan's Introduction explains why the two novels together form Conrad's darkest glimpse into the flawed nature of humankind.
819 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1904
18 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,177 books4,907 followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 14, 2023
[Writing this an hour and a half before my Chiefs play the Eagles in the Super Bowl - not sure how thorough this will be!]
Long book. It's well over 400 dense pages; I'd say I put at least 20 hours into reading it, perhaps far more. Course this is par for the course for Conrad I seem to understand.
I read this book because I love the Alien franchise started by Ridley Scott, and he names the ship from the first film the "Nostromo". I decided after watching Alien for the umpteenth time that I wanted to see why he made this reference. Here are my surmises:
Betrayal, yes, there is a level of betrayal. The character, Nostromo, is a "man of the people" but a man who leads men, renowned for the control he exerts over his shipyard workers (the "cargadores"), his courage in skirmishes and entering hostile territory, and his faithfulness to his tasks. The biggest task in which he demonstrates his faithfulness is securing the safety of a huge amount of silver from the local mine. What's interesting is that he does this, at first, out of his loyalty to the rich foreigners in town who entrust him with the task as much as for the sake of his own reputation, to continue to be known as a man who gets the job done. But then, when the silver is "lost" by all accounts - just fortunately not into the hands of the enemy rival political party - Nostromo continues to hide the silver because it has come to claim his soul: he cannot part with this treasure forgotten to all world but him, and he becomes its slave. So this would be a major way in which Nostromo is so to speak "betrayed": that which he sacrificed his own health and safety to protect, ends up dangling before him a future of security and marriage and prosperity before it causes his own demise in his attempts to claim it.
Likewise, the crew of the Nostromo in Alien are bringing back a treasure of thousands of tons of some ore from deep space when they are redirected to inspect a signal coming from the planet LV-426. There is some talk that they might ignore that signal, but a "company man" reminds them that in so doing under company contract they could forfeit all their profits from the expedition. Thus they are obliged to take this side trip, a trip which ends up bringing the Xenomorph aboard and resulting in the deaths of the whole crew apart from Ripley (Sigourney Weaver's character). You could argue about some similarities here - Conrad's Nostromo "loses" the silver when in reality he stowed it away where only he knew; Scott's Ripley self-destructs the ship with all its mined ore, but manages to bring the true "treasure", in the eyes of the company - the Xenomorph, onto the escape ship with her. At the end of Conrad's Nostromo, technically the silver remains but it is ambiguous whether anyone truly knows exactly where it is and at the end of "Alien" the Xenomorph, this amazing specimen which seems it can survive the vacuum of space and without sustenance, is left floating in the dark, perhaps to be found some day far far in the future.
Oof. Gotta get to my Super Bowl party here.
To wrap up, it's not Just betrayal though that leads to Nostromo's demise. His own avarice and carelessness played equal parts toward his death. And that certainly is a theme in Alien as well. While the Company had moving parts seen and unseen to successfully retrieve this biological marvel from LV-426, a lot of poor decisions also led to the crew's demise. Haste, without which they might have decoded the signal as the warning signal it was rather than as a distress call. Undue curiousity, without which Kane might not have been infected. Ignoring protocol, without which the Xenomorph might never have come aboard. It seems a theme for both pieces of art is that, in the end, for the tragic figure, it is both fate or betrayal and one's own vices that synthesize to weave a tapestry of the hero's destruction.
May that not be the case for my Chiefs today!
Long book. It's well over 400 dense pages; I'd say I put at least 20 hours into reading it, perhaps far more. Course this is par for the course for Conrad I seem to understand.
I read this book because I love the Alien franchise started by Ridley Scott, and he names the ship from the first film the "Nostromo". I decided after watching Alien for the umpteenth time that I wanted to see why he made this reference. Here are my surmises:
Betrayal, yes, there is a level of betrayal. The character, Nostromo, is a "man of the people" but a man who leads men, renowned for the control he exerts over his shipyard workers (the "cargadores"), his courage in skirmishes and entering hostile territory, and his faithfulness to his tasks. The biggest task in which he demonstrates his faithfulness is securing the safety of a huge amount of silver from the local mine. What's interesting is that he does this, at first, out of his loyalty to the rich foreigners in town who entrust him with the task as much as for the sake of his own reputation, to continue to be known as a man who gets the job done. But then, when the silver is "lost" by all accounts - just fortunately not into the hands of the enemy rival political party - Nostromo continues to hide the silver because it has come to claim his soul: he cannot part with this treasure forgotten to all world but him, and he becomes its slave. So this would be a major way in which Nostromo is so to speak "betrayed": that which he sacrificed his own health and safety to protect, ends up dangling before him a future of security and marriage and prosperity before it causes his own demise in his attempts to claim it.
Likewise, the crew of the Nostromo in Alien are bringing back a treasure of thousands of tons of some ore from deep space when they are redirected to inspect a signal coming from the planet LV-426. There is some talk that they might ignore that signal, but a "company man" reminds them that in so doing under company contract they could forfeit all their profits from the expedition. Thus they are obliged to take this side trip, a trip which ends up bringing the Xenomorph aboard and resulting in the deaths of the whole crew apart from Ripley (Sigourney Weaver's character). You could argue about some similarities here - Conrad's Nostromo "loses" the silver when in reality he stowed it away where only he knew; Scott's Ripley self-destructs the ship with all its mined ore, but manages to bring the true "treasure", in the eyes of the company - the Xenomorph, onto the escape ship with her. At the end of Conrad's Nostromo, technically the silver remains but it is ambiguous whether anyone truly knows exactly where it is and at the end of "Alien" the Xenomorph, this amazing specimen which seems it can survive the vacuum of space and without sustenance, is left floating in the dark, perhaps to be found some day far far in the future.
Oof. Gotta get to my Super Bowl party here.
To wrap up, it's not Just betrayal though that leads to Nostromo's demise. His own avarice and carelessness played equal parts toward his death. And that certainly is a theme in Alien as well. While the Company had moving parts seen and unseen to successfully retrieve this biological marvel from LV-426, a lot of poor decisions also led to the crew's demise. Haste, without which they might have decoded the signal as the warning signal it was rather than as a distress call. Undue curiousity, without which Kane might not have been infected. Ignoring protocol, without which the Xenomorph might never have come aboard. It seems a theme for both pieces of art is that, in the end, for the tragic figure, it is both fate or betrayal and one's own vices that synthesize to weave a tapestry of the hero's destruction.
May that not be the case for my Chiefs today!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2013
"I think this is one of Conrad's finest novels, on the same level as Nostromo (I should let it be known that, unlike most people, I found Nostromo and Lord Jim to be better than The Secret Agent and Heart of Darkness). Conrad created a very interesting, complicated character in "Lord" Jim, a man with intense inner struggles. It is compelling reading because while Jim suffers from feelings of regret and moral inferiority, he displays a convincingly strong external appearance. The reader learns that he is trying to make up for what he considers to be a past weakness; however, it becomes clear that he has blown his past "mistake" out of proportion and his everyday actions since then have gone far beyond making up for it. So, Jim's character is fascinating in and of itself. Yet what also makes the novel an enjoyable read is the setting, an isolated tropical island inhabited by an indigenous tribe. The internal "politics" on the island interested me, as did the variety of unique personalities. Read this book; it's not long, and it's fun."
A memorable quote:
"It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. Nevertheless, there can be but few of us who had never known one of these rare moments of awakening when we see, hear, understand ever so much - everything - in a flash - before we fall back again into our agreeable somnolence." - Guillermo Máynez Gil
A memorable quote:
"It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. Nevertheless, there can be but few of us who had never known one of these rare moments of awakening when we see, hear, understand ever so much - everything - in a flash - before we fall back again into our agreeable somnolence." - Guillermo Máynez Gil
March 5, 2009
The ever fascinating tale of yearning towards heroism, shame and the heroism that arises from shame--Lord Jim. More beautiful writing you won't hope to read for a long time.
February 24, 2018
Read Lord Jim -- getting past the 19th century writing style of Conrad is important as he weaves a great story.
July 27, 2020
Lord Jim only... What to say? Because the language is a century old, it takes a while for the rhythm of the prose to kick in. But since the book is written by one of our best adopted-English-polyglot-authors (Conrad; Nabokov; Borges, et al.), there is at least one small gem of attention-catching usage on every page. The 'theme' I will leave to others to handle, but the 'plot' at least is a good impetus to keep a person reading.
Nostromo only... Am a little uncertain if the length of the book is worth the time invested in the plot (for which I am not going to include any spoilers). But there's certainly a good amount of interesting prose that is included, for the sake of reading it, and a more-than-full cast of characters in the attempt to tell such a 'big story'.
Nostromo only... Am a little uncertain if the length of the book is worth the time invested in the plot (for which I am not going to include any spoilers). But there's certainly a good amount of interesting prose that is included, for the sake of reading it, and a more-than-full cast of characters in the attempt to tell such a 'big story'.
Read
August 14, 2007I read this about the time the Peter O'Toole movie version came out. My older brother was reading the book for a college course and left a copy laying around. I picked it up and was enthralled by the story. That English was Conrad's second language (his first: Polish) has always amazed me. Later, I would read Nostromo, following a lead in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Nostromo has the whole western imperialism thing down; you can see America's follies in Vietnam and the Middle East written large in these pages, like prophecy.
February 14, 2011
Difficult to get into. Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as "Heart of Darkness"
August 8, 2013
The stor of a young Midshipman escaping disaster an excellent classic
April 30, 2008
To be read with a cup of Porto and a cigar.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews