Jim, first mate on board the Patna, is a simple and sensitive young man who dreams of becoming a hero. But when the Patna threatens to sink, Jim takes the cowardly way out and jumps clear. His unbearable guilt and shame at having violated the unwritten moral code of the sea leads him to become an exile in a remote Malay state. There he fashions a new identity for himself as the benevolent ruler of an exotic land - until his idyll is interrupted. Rich, moving and delicately crafted, Lord Jim is a compelling meditation on identity, guilt and lost honour.

Part of a major series of new editions of Conrad's most famous works in Penguin Classics, this volume contains a chronology, further reading, notes, a map, a glossary and an introduction discussing the novel's basis in real events and its portrayal of the conflict between social codes and the individual.