All discrepancies have been checked against the second English edition and the second American edition; the resulting Textual Notes include over 500 substantive changes.

The text is thoroughly annotated, and the editor has added a "Glossary of Eastern and Nautical Terms."

"Backgrounds" includes the complete text of "Tuan Jim."

"Sources" is a special section edited for this Norton Critical Edition by Dr. Norman Sherry of the University of Liverpool, presenting his discoveries about the real-life counterpart of Lord Jim, the incidents described in the novel, and life in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth century.  Dr. Sherry is the author of Conrad's Eastern World.

Among the perspectives presented in "Criticism" are those of Hugh Clifford, Albert J. Guerard, Ian Watt, Fredric Jameson, J. Hillis Miller, Edward Said, Philip M. Weinstein, Paul B. Armstrong, Marianne DeKoven, and Daphana Erdinast-Vulcan.