Lord Jim is a work of Joseph Conard’s maturity as a writer, and is one of the book which established him as a master storyteller and a great novelist. With this book Joseph Conrad set the style for a whole class of literature—the novel of the outcast from civilization finding refuge in the tropics. The novel is set against a maritime background in the Far East. It brings out to the full, Conrad's lengthy, firsthand experiences as a Master Mariner prior to his becoming a writer. Jim, chief mate on the steamship Patna, is a simple and sensitive character, a raw youth having dreams of heroism. When the Patna threatens to sink and the cowardly officers decide to save their own lives and jump in the few lifeboats, Jim despises them, but at the last moment, dazed by the horror and confusion of the moment, he joins them.