The Shadow Line

This masterly character study of human transformation, written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) during the First World War, chronicles a youth's passage into manhood upon becoming the commander of his first ship. In this poignant tale of maturation, Conrad explores this transitional event while delivering a portrait of physical and psychic exile, sensory disorientation, and the final crossover to a new identity. With a realism born of firsthand knowledge of the seafaring life, Conrad delivers an intense evocation of his own first command aboard the ship Otago, taken on when the previous captain died en route to Bangkok.