本书是英国作家康拉德最受推崇的小说，发表于1900年。内容写一个英国青年海员吉姆由于一时的卑怯而贪生失职，受到舆论和良心的谴责，但他终于以光荣的一死挽回了丧失的荣誉。吉姆在帕特纳号上当大副，运送八百名旅客前往麦加朝圣。中途触礁，船有沉没的危险，吉姆报告了船长。船长带着几名轮机手，偷偷丢下全船旅客跳上一只救生艇逃命。吉姆由于偶然的情况，犹豫之后也跳上了救生艇。他们登岸后，方知帕特纳号遇救脱险，旅客安然无恙。在法庭调查事实时，只有吉姆一人敢于说出真相。船长和吉姆被判定失职，吊销执照。这个耻屏和犯罪的感觉时刻折磨着吉姆的良心。无论他到哪里，关于这一丑事的谈论也跟到哪里，使他无法安身立足。最后他经人保荐到东方公司设在遥远的热带地区的贸易站当一名经理。不久吉姆成了深受当地土著部落头人多拉明信任的顾问，他儿子戴恩?沃里斯的好友，人们称他为“吉姆老爷”。一次，以布朗为首的一伙白人海盗上岸寻衅闹事被当地土人抓起来，吉姆为他们求情，头人放他们回去。不料他们在回船的路上背信弃义，杀死戴恩?沃里斯和其他武士。吉姆怀着满腔悲痛，来向头人请罪，心甘情愿地让他把自己处死。

This revised Norton Critical Edition represents a complete recasting of the 1968 edition, in accordance with recent scholarship, the text is now that of the 1900 William Blackwood & Sons edition, the preferred first English edition. The novel is accompanied by expanded annotations, textual notes (including all variants in the heavily revised magazine version of Lord Jim as well as the book editions published in Conrad's lifetime), and "A Lord Jim Gazetteer and Glossary of Eastern and Nautical Terms."

A wealth of background and source material is included: Conrad's correspondence: a previously unavailable account of Lord Jim's several endings; richly detailed accounts of the novel's historical and literary sources: geographical and topographical studies: six illustrations: and two maps.

The best critical writing on Lord Jim is presented in twelve essays by Hugh Clifford. Albert J. Guerard, Ian Watt. Fredric Jameson, J. Hillis Miller. Edward Said. Philip M. Weinstein. Paul B. Armstrong, Marianne DeKoven. and Daphna Erdinast- Vulcan, among others.

A Selected Bibliography is also included.

Preface to the First Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

The Text of Lord ]ira

  TEXTUAL HISTORY

  TEXTUAL NOTES

  A LORD JIM GAZETTEER AND GLOSSARY OF EASTERN AND NAUTICAL TERMS

Backgrounds

 Editor's Note on the Composition of Lord Jim

 Alexander Janta · [Tuan Jim: A Sketch]

 Correspondence Related to Lord Jim

 The Division, by Chapters, of the Monthly Installments of Lord Jim: A Sketch in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

 Ernest W. Sullivan · The Several Endings of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim

Sources

 Norman Sherry · The Pilgrim-Ship Episode

 · The Bornean River and Its People

 Hans van Marie and Pierre Lefranc · Ashore and Afloat: New Perspectives on Topography and Geography in Lord Jim

 Dwight H. Purdy · The Chronology of Lord Jim

 Pierre Lefranc · Conradian Backgrounds and Contexts for Lord Jim

Criticism

 Anonymous · New York Tribune, November 3, 1900

 Anonymous · Spectator, November 24, 1900

 Hugh Clifford · The Genius of Mr. Joseph Conrad

 Albert J. Guerard · Lord Jim

 Ian Watt · Composition and Sources

 · The Friendship

 Fredric Jameson · [Romance and Reification in Lord Jim]

 J. Hillis Miller · Lord Jim: Repetition as Subversion of Organic Form

 Edward Said · [The Presentation of Narrative in Lord Jim]

 Philip M. Weinstein · "Nothing Can Touch Me": Lord Jim

 Paul B. Armstrong · [Monism and Pluralism in Lord Jim]

 Marianne De Koven · The Destructive Element: Lord Jim

  Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan · The Failure of Myth: Lord JimSelected Bibliography