Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Everyone knows the story, I suppose. A young sailor with romantic visions of how valorous he will be in trying situations behaves badly. He deserts a ship full of passengers when it is in danger of sinking rather than doing what he could to save the passengers, or barring that, going down with the ship. He seems to have fled in sort of fugue state—either that or he has simply repressed the incident due to his great shame. He is unable to recall what led him to do such a thing, and is appalled to think it might simply have been fear. This young sailor, Jim, while being tried for his dereliction of duty, meets Marlow who, as he does in Heart of Darkness , tells us the story. In this case the story is Jim's life: his attempts to flee from his shame, his near success, his ultimate failure. There is also, however, an omniscient narrator, which means that for most of the novel it is not the story of Jim's life, but rather a story about Marlow telling the story of Jim's life. T...