"Men act badly sometimes without being much worse than others." Charlie Marlow from Conrad's previous adventure novel, 'Heart of Darkness', is back, and he is trying to piece together and understand the life of Jim, a British seaman with a shameful past. Once a mate aboard a merchant ship carrying hundreds of Muslim pilgrims, Jim and the crew made the mistake of abandoning all the passengers, believing the ship would sink. But it did not, and the passengers lived to tell the tale. Praised by Virginia Wolf, Conrad's writing is ambitious, intriguing and humane. 'Lord Jim' (1900) is a classic tale of redemption.