Joseph Conrad & Joseph Conrad 
Lord Jim (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time – #71] 

‘I regard Conrad as one of the best writers of this century, and… one of the very few true novelists that England possesses.’ —George Orwell
‘I learned all I know of Literature from Conrad.’ —Ford Madox Ford
‘[Conrad’s] books are full of moments of vision. They light up a whole character in a flash… He could not write badly, one feels, to save is life.’ —Virginia Woolf

“Lord Jim” tells the story of a young, idealistic Englishman — as unflinching as a hero in a book — who is disgraced by a single act of cowardice while serving as an officer on the Patna, a merchant-ship sailing from an eastern port. His life is ruined: an isolated scandal has assumed horrifying proportions. But, then he’s befriended by an older man named Marlow who helps to establish him in exotic Patusan, a remote Malay settlement where his courage is put to the test once more.
“Lord Jim” is a book about courage and cowardice, self-knowledge and personal growth. It’s one of the most profound and rewarding psychological novels in English. Set in the context of social change and colonial expansion in late Victorian England, it embodies in Jim the values and turmoil of a fading empire.