Paperback, 148 pages
English language
Published June 15, 2007 by 1st World Library - Literary Society.
A young and inexperienced sea captain finds that his first command leaves him with a ship stranded in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever. As he wrestles with his conscience and with the increasing sense of isolation that he experiences, the captain crosses the 'shadow-line' between youth and adulthood. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, Conrad's novella was written at the start of the Great War when his son Borys was at the Western Front, and can be seen as an attempt to open humanity's eyes to the qualities needed to face evil and destruction.
The blurb above really tells most of what the story is about - a young man given his first command, and coming of age by learning to deal with disaster
Anyone who likes Conrad will enjoy this.
As a side note - this story avoids any of the "that's how they thought back then" issues that some of his other books contain.
