Norman Sherry's thoughtful biography perfectly captures the early years of an honest,lonely,sensitive Englishman with privileged opportunities who becomes a successful novelist. As Sherry pointed out Greene's keen power of observation produced a cynical and realistic view of life. Burdened by anxieties but guided by his Catholic faith Greene was attracted to the epic struggles of flawed underdogs trying to cope with their transitory lives. Sherry ties all this together neatly. Its a book for leisurely reading. You will never regret its purchase.

This is an inspiring, detailed look at a fascinating writer, by an equally fascinating writer. The images of Norman Sherry traipsing through the jungles and Mexico, etc., give one pause and confidence. If his work on Conrad is as detailed and careful, I would suspect he could give the composition of bilge water in the hold of each ship for each trip for each book. If one ever wondered about writers and sources and inspiration and biography and art, start with volume I. You could have no finer introduction.

I thought this book of Norman Rockwell's work was a fascinatining look into the typical/almost idealistic life of everyday embarrassing/comical/poignant situations which do commonly occur. The picture I enjoyed the most was "The Gossips" where upon I could imagine the tale behind the laughter and enjoy looking at the different facial expressions and that there was such a great twist to the tale. Thank you for such a great book!.

The book is small, but the illustrations still are reproduced extremely well. The essay alone is worth every penny. If you feel uneasy about your love for the work of Norman Rockwell, this book will give you the courage to like what you really like, without any more appologies. Buy it, read it, enjoy. You will, I guarantee.

This is the central question explored by Conrad in Lord Jim. Jim is ultimately a character who inspires our sympathy due to his inability to find reconcilliation for his one tragic moment of weakness. In him we find a person of tremendous potential that remains unrealized as the tragic circumstances of his abandoning his post aboard the Patna continually haunt him and the associated guilt drives him to isolation.
Conrad successfully explores the concepts of bravery, cowardice,guilt and the alternative destinies that an individual may be driven to by these qualities.
The narrative can be a bit confusing at times as Marlowe relates the tale by recalling his encounters with Jim. The book reminded very much of Somerset Maugham's THE RAZOR"S EDGE" in style. However I believe that Maugham did a much better job of incorporating the narrator into the flow of the story. Overall LORD JIM is a wonderful classic novel that I highly recommend.

This is the fifth book I have read by Conrad, and through these readings I have come to deeply appreciate his literary power and the perfection of his stories. Conrad has the skill to border about several similar subjects, without repeating himself. "Lord Jim" is truly a Shakespearean tragedy, mainly because of the Shakespearean nature of the main character. Jim is a young naval officer with high hopes of heroism and moral superiority, but when he faces his first test of courage, he miserably fails. While 800 Muslim pilgrims are asleep aboard the ship "Patna", Jim discovers that the boat is about to sink. There are not sufficient lifeboats for everybody. Should he wake them up or not? He gets paralyzed with fear and then sudenly jumps into a boat being set up by the rest of the officers. He is taken to trial and disposessed of his working licence.

Ashamed and humiliated, Jim dedicates the rest of his life to two things: escape the memory of that fateful night, and redeem himself. This agonizing quest to recover his dignity in front of his own eyes leads him to hide in a very remote point in the Malayan peninsula, where he will become the hero, the strong man, the wise protector of underdeveloped, humble and ignorant people. Jim finds not only the love of his people, but also the love of a woman who admires him and fears the day when he might leave for good. The narrator, Captain Marlow (the same of "Heart of Darkness") talks to Jim for the last time in his remote refuge, and then Jim tells him that he has redeemed himself by becoming the people's protector. Oh, but these things are never easy and Jim will face again the specter of failure.

Conrad has achieved a great thing by transforming the "novel of adventures" into the setting for profound and interesting reflections on the moral stature of Man, on courage, guilt, responsibility, and redemption.

Just as in "Heart of Darkness" the question is what kinds of beings we are stripped of cultural, moral and religious conventions; just as in "Nostromo" the trustworthiness of a supposedly honest man is tested by temptation, in "Lord Jim" the central subject is dignity and redemption after failure.

A great book by one of the best writers.

After reading this book (along with several other of Conrad's books) I am under the impression that Joseph Conrad may very well be my favorite author. Here is another masterpiece, a deeply incisive study of character of the motivation and the ultimate failure of all high-minded ideals. Granted my own personal world view falls directly in line with this realization and therefore prejudices me towards anything the man might write, but, when considering such a lofty title as 'favorite author' one must regard other aspects of the novelist's creation. As with the others, Conrad wins by the power of his stories.

Lord Jim is my least favorite of the the four books I have read by Conrad. The story is rather scattered: a righteous young man does something wrong that he holds himself far too accountable for and the public shame the action brought him exaggerates the reality of his failure and makes him believe the rumors swirling around about his so-called cowardice. He spends the remainder of his life trying to reclaim his self-regard, mostly exaggerating his own importance in matters he hardly understands. His goal is to liberate the primitive people of the jungle paradise he inadvertantly finds himself in (due to an effort to escape every particle of the world he once inhabited) and his once high-minded ideals and regard for himself lead him to allow those people to consider him almost a God.

Jim likes being a God and considers himself a just and fair one. He treats everyone equally and gives to his people the knowledge of modern science and medicine as well as the everyday archetecture and understanding of trade that those primitive folks would otherwise be years from comprehending.

Of course everything ends in failure and misery and of course Jim's restored name will be returned to its demonic status, but the whole point of the novel seems to me that one can not escape their past. Jim, for all his courage in the line of fire has tried to avoid all memory of the once shameful act of his former life and by doing so becomes destined to repeat his mistakes.

Lord Jim is far more expansive than the story it sets out to tell, ultimately giving a warning on the nature of history and general humanity that only a writer of Conrad's statue could hope to help us understand.

If there is a flaw it is not one to be taken literally. Conrad was a master of structural experimentation and with Lord Jim he starts with a standard third person narrative to relate the background and personalities of his characters and then somehow merges this into a second person narrative of a man, years from the events he is relating, telling of the legend of Jim. It is a brilliant innovation that starts off a little awkward and might lead to confusion in spots as the story verges into its most important parts under the uncertain guidence of a narrator who, for all his insight into others, seems unwilling to relate his personal relevence to the story he is relating.

Nevertheless (with a heartfelt refrain), one of the best books I have ever read.

Sherry's "biography" is saved only by its topic: Graham Greene, a man whose life was so interesting that even Sherry's ineptitude can't quite get in the way.

The flaws in this work abound but of import are the consistent failures by Sherry to dive into anything that would or could possibly reveal "too much" about a man that even Sherry admits, was notorious for not revealing much of anyhting to anyone.

Dreams that beg to be discussed are described and then abandoned as topics, health concerns (Green's hemorage surely deserves some comment, doesn't it? - or have I missed it amid the insesent repetions by Sherry that The Power and the Glory was Grenne's "best work" - understood that the first three times Sherry said it)and refrences to one of Green's acknowledged "masters" (Conrad) are offered up, and then, dropped like hot rocks.

To make matters worse, one is treated to such sparkling gems of "thought" as (to paraphrase) that the insurgents in malaya were fighting against the "benificent" British and their colonial puppets - surely, greene, a man on the side of the "underdog" (regardless of said dog's politics)had something else in mind? Or is this more of the ex-spys double-talk? Using Sherry as a source, one will never know.

Given Greene's penchent for opacity, it should come as no suprise to anyone who knows anything about the man, that having chosen his own "man in biography" that Greene should have played Sherry for his own purposes.

As a source-work for Greene's own material, and as an illsutration of what can happen to an author upon achieving "success" the book is useful.

Beyond that, stick to Greene's own work. You'll be far better served.

Sincerely,

A Reader

But, I'm waiting for Vol. 3 and when it's going to be publish? Thanks.
Please let me know.

Norman Sherry did an excellent job of chronicling some of the most facinating phases of Graham Greene's personal and professional life. While I found vol. 1 to be a bit slow and often uninteresting at times, vol. 2 really gives great insight into the period of Greene's most productive and important years.

I'm eagerly awaiting vol. 3 to see how well Sherry tells the life of one of the more important authors of the Twentieth Century.