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.