Lord Jim ; Srce tame

by Joseph Conrad, Tin Ujević (Translator)

In Lord Jim, first mate Jim, joins his captain and crew in abandoning the Patna. Later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are also saved, and the actions of the crew are exposed. Everyone evades the judicial court of inquiry except Jim. The court strips him of his navigation command certificate. Jim is angry with himself. Jim tries to return to the sea but whenever the Patna incident catches up with him, he abandons his place and moves further east. Jim eventually finds a place on a remote inland settlement where his past can remain hidden. While living on the island he acquires the title 'Tuan' ('Lord'). Heart of Darkness tells of Charles Marlow, a river-boat captain in Africa. The story exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the darkness within human beings for committing heinous acts of evil.

492 pages, Hardcover

First published March 13, 2013

About the author

Joseph 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.

Reviews

[spillingthematcha]

„Żyjemy tak jak śnimy – samotnie”

[Atinah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mogło być gorzej, ale w sumie przez większość czasu byłam w innym świecie, więc to chyba średnio dobrze świadczy o tej lekturze.

[KK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mam z tą książką relację jak z ojcem - czyli jej nie mam.
W skrócie ładny, dobry koncept i teoretycznie styl nie najgorszy, ale jednak czegoś tutaj brakowało.

[Marek Michalak · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Jądro Ciemności" oceniłem już osobno. Natomiast "Lord Jim" to opowieść, która mimo mistrzowskich obrazów, jakie Conrad potrafi wytworzyć swymi słowami w wyobraźni czytelnika, nie porywa. Jest, niestety, koszmarnie rozwleczona i pełna powtórzeń i zapętleń. Nic więc dziwnego, że jako lektura do dziś męczy młodych, chyba w większości niedojrzałych do tematu czytelników. Również pojęcie "honoru" jako wartości nadrzędnej, określającej prawdziwego gentlemana (jednocześnie będącego - a jakże kolonizatorem, mizoginem i rasistą - mocno się już zdewaulowało.
Jest w tej historii coś porywającego, ale na pewno nie na tyle, by zafascynować się postacią Jima w takim stopniu jak narrator.