Shadow-Line: A Confession Book

"a man should stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience and all that sort of thing Why--what else would you have to fight against?"
-- Joseph Conrad, The Shadow-Line



One of Conrad's later novels. This one was published in 1917. The story is pretty straight forward, the plot direct. It isn't an elaborate story, but one that explores that moment, that shadow-line between youth and adulthood. The basic story involves a young officer, suddenly thrust into command. During his first voyage he is tested and learns about strength, duty, obligation, etc. It is a story about maturity, wisdom, experience.

I'm not sure if my love of sea stories is directly tied to Conrad, or if my love of Conrad comes from my love of sea stories. The genre and the writer are both so closely mixed in my brain. What I do know is I love the morality of Conrad. I love his affection for men, for work, for duty, for the sea. I also love his modernist bent toward psychology and the untidy unknown. Mostly, I love the clean, tight precision of his prose (which often conflicts with his ambiguous narratives). This isn't top-shelf Conrad, but shouldn't be ignored by his devoted fans.