The Shadow-Line

Written by Joseph Conrad

Narrated by Fred Williams

Written at the start of World War I when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad’s effort to open man’s eyes to the meaning of war through the story of a young, inexperienced sea captain who crosses the “shadow-line” to adulthood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9780786127160

Joseph Conrad

Polish-born Joseph Conrad is regarded as a highly influential author, and his works are seen as a precursor to modernist literature. His often tragic insight into the human condition in novels such as Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent is unrivalled by his contemporaries.

Reviews for The Shadow-Line

[sushicat-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A young sea captain gets his first command after he quits his comfortable position as first mate somewhere in South East Asia. This command tests him to the limit and takes him over the shadow line, that line that separates insouciant youth from responsible maturity. The days are filled with a curious mix of inactivity and tension, as their ship barely moves due to lack of wind and the crew get sick one after the other. To top it all off his first mate is sure the ship is haunted.

The book is written from the perspective of the young captain. His struggle with the loneliness of command, the separation of himself from those under his command, his doubts and feelings of guilt for things beyond his control are a nice read, though at times quite a rambling one.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of a young man who takes over command of a sailing ship that is haunted by it's previous captain. This is my second book by Conrad. I had already read Heart of Darkness and I found that amazing classic to be just mediocre for me. I read this book hoping that maybe I just hadn't been in the right frame of mind, but I came away still feeling not emotionally moved or even entertained by this story. Not a bad book, but not that compelling or memorable for me.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slow to start, with hero having lost track a bit and landing a command almost by accident. The story itself lacks grip in the early pages. But once he sees his ship and effectively falls in love with it, the writing gets tight focus: the ship, the weather, disease, madness, will-power, with a hint of the supernatural. In essence autobiographical, with much scholarly ink spilt on the details thereof, but what does it matter? Great style, great story.

[missizicks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Short but gripping. An insight into how the crew of a ship must pull together to survive, no matter what is thrown at them. As ever, Conrad's understanding of human nature is to the fore, and his language as elegant as ever.

[gmillar_8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A ripping good yarn of ships, the sea and the Orient.

[kant1066 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I picked up this book much too casually and without any forethought, and because of this, didn’t give to the book the time and energy that it deserved. This is one of Conrad’s later stories, and happens to have a lot of autobiographical elements, in that it focuses on a young man who gets a commission to lead a ship into the Orient. Conrad’s first command was to sail a ship called the Otago from Singapore into Bangkok. Despite the death of the previous captain and the less-than-auspicious circumstances, Conrad decides to lead the ship anyway. The ship only managed to cover 800 miles in three weeks, and every crew member except Conrad and the onboard cook were stricken with debilitating fever. “The Shadow-Line” supposedly refers to the anonymous protagonist’s transition from callow boyhood to maturity when he takes up command of the ship and all that entails. The main character certainly does take an exceeding amount of pride in his first role as captain. However, different readings inevitably produce different interpretations – and the story has been taken as everything from a metaphor for the outbreak of World War I to some sort of meditation on the supernatural. The store never really “goes anywhere.” It works well as a psychological study of a character, but I think this takes a longer story - something more on the order of “The Heart of Darkenss,” which at least *felt* longer and more developed. There, you came away knowing the kind of people that Marlow and Kurtz were. Here, that development was lacking, and what almost never happens while reading a book happened to me – I didn’t even feel compelled to finish the last several pages. Maybe I’ll pick this up again in several more years, and be more cautious of the kind of fiction Conrad is interested in writing.