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Posted by SDG on August 10, 19100 at 11:47:58:
As I read Lord Jim, some questions came up for me and I would like to know what others have to say in these regards so that I might come to understand and appreciate the novel better and more deeply. Anyhow, here's what's troubling me so far.
1. What did Stein mean when he said “Romantic” to describes Jim’s life and psychic predicament, after Marlow had recounted Jim’s life and his experiences of Jim. -- And what did Conrad mean by the word “Romantic”?
(the same “Romantic” of Saki's stories?)
2. I’m having a great deal of difficulty suspending my disbelief in the whole premise upon which this narrative is based -- that is, that the incident around Jim and the Patna is of so much importance that it’s on the lips of men over a period of some years and a geography of some distance.
It seems to me that Conrad, through the voice of the narrator, goes to some length to justify this import, almost as if he does “protest too much” in order to give significant weight, emotion, verbal artistry, and narrative density to the ‘story,’ when what’s really of import is the psychology of the narrator Marlow and the subject of his almost obsessive interst in Jim and his story. Is it primarily a novel of psychology and character? Could it be called a Bildungsroman? Or just how does one clify this novel?
Thanks in advance for insights.
Sue