The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad

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Title: Lord Jim

Author: Joseph Conrad

Release Date: January 9, 2006 [EBook #5658]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JIM ***

Produced by Forrest Wasserman and David Widger

LORD JIM

BY JOSEPH CONRAD

AUTHOR'S NOTE

When this novel first appeared in book form a notion got about that
I had been bolted away with. Some reviewers maintained that the work
starting as a short story had got beyond the writer's control. One or
two discovered internal evidence of the fact, which seemed to amuse
them. They pointed out the limitations of the narrative form. They
argued that no man could have been expected to talk all that time, and
other men to listen so long. It was not, they said, very credible.

After thinking it over for something like sixteen years, I am not so
sure about that. Men have been known, both in the tropics and in
the temperate zone, to sit up half the night 'swapping yarns'. This,
however, is but one yarn, yet with interruptions affording some measure
of relief; and in regard to the listeners' endurance, the postulate
must be accepted that the story was interesting. It is the necessary
preliminary assumption. If I hadn't believed that it was interesting I
could never have begun to write it. As to the mere physical possibility
we all know that some speeches in Parliament have taken nearer six than
three hours in delivery; whereas all that part of the book which is
Marlow's narrative can be read through aloud, I should say, in less than
three hours. Besides--though I have kept strictly all such insignificant
details out of the tale--we may presume that there must have been
refreshments on that night, a glass of mineral water of some sort to
help the narrator on.

But, seriously, the truth of the matter is, that my first thought was
of a short story, concerned only with the pilgrim ship episode; nothing
more. And that was a legitimate conception. After writing a few pages,
however, I became for some reason discontented and I laid them aside for
a time. I didn't take them out of the drawer till the late Mr. Wil