LORD JIM. A Tale. [largely unopened]

1900. [a FINE, mostly-unopened copy] Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900. Original light green linen decorated in black.

First Edition, first and only issue, of Conrad's fifth (and most would say his greatest) book, the psychological study of a mariner trying to recover his lost honor. Conrad planned to write only a short story when he began LORD JIM, with an eye toward forming a volume consisting of it, "Youth" and "Heart of Darkness"; however, once he got going, the story lengthened into six times its conceived size, and of course it had to become a book unto itself. Published in an edition of 2,105 domestic copies in October 1900, LORD JIM was bound up without an ad catalogue -- so copies do not "vary" by ad date, like Blackwood's later YOUTH; the typos often cited as issue points are not, since they occur in ALL copies. This is a remarkably clean copy, with virtually no wear and scarcely any soil, and with the endpapers clean and intact -- FINE, other than some light foxing on the first few leaves. Some readers have a tough time working their way through LORD JIM -- and we can verify that this was true for the initial reader of this copy, since the leaves are opened only though page 96 (i.e. the book's leaves are almost 80% unopened). We find LORD JIM to be the toughest of Conrad's first editions to find in fine condition. Cagle A5a.1.