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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Lord Jim
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(1900) Novel by *Conrad about an idealistic young mate of a steamship, the Patna, who on an uncharacteristic impulse jumps into a lifeboat ahead of the passengers. Disgraced at the court of enquiry (though in the event no-one died), he withdraws to ever more remote places, ending up as agent at a trading post, Patusan, in an inaccessible part of Malaya. Here he wins the respect of the elderly chief, Doramin, and becomes known as Lord Jim. But he fails in an honourable attempt to avoid bloodshed, when the community is threatened by a marauding gang led by Gentleman Brown.
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Jim has pledged his life on the outcome and willingly allows himself to be shot by Doramin, who has lost his own son in the violence. Death for a failed ideal wipes out the earlier failure to live up to an ideal. Like *Heart of Darkness, the story is related by Marlow – though he is here only a friend and observer.
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