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    The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)
    The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)
    The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)
    Ebook194 pages2 hours

    The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)

    By Joseph Conrad

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    About this ebook

    This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Shadow-Line’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad’.

    Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Conrad includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

    eBook features:
    * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Shadow-Line’
    * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Conrad’s works
    * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
    * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateJul 17, 2017
    ISBN9781786565310
    The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)
    Author

    Joseph Conrad

    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) und Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) gehören zu den bedeutendsten Erzählern der modernen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. In seinen vielschichtigen, auch vieldeutigen Romanen und Erzählungen knüpfte Conrad oft an die Erfahrungen seiner Seemannsjahre an. Die Romane von Ford Madox Ford haben an Wertschätzung in den letzten Jahrzehnten ständig zugenommen und gelten heute ebenfalls als Klassiker; er arbeitete viel und eng mit Joseph Conrad zusammen, mit dem er mehrere Bücher verfasste.

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      Book preview

      The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) - Joseph Conrad

      The Complete Works of

      JOSEPH CONRAD

      VOLUME 14 OF 51

      The Shadow-Line

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2013

      Version 4

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘The Shadow-Line’

      Joseph Conrad: Parts Edition (in 51 parts)

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2017.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 78656 531 0

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: [email protected]

      www.delphiclassics.com

      Joseph Conrad: Parts Edition

      This eBook is Part 14 of the Delphi Classics edition of Joseph Conrad in 51 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Shadow-Line from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Joseph Conrad, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

      Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Joseph Conrad or the Complete Works of Joseph Conrad in a single eBook.

      Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

      JOSEPH CONRAD

      IN 51 VOLUMES

      Parts Edition Contents

      The Novels and Novellas

      1, Almayer’s Folly

      2, An Outcast of the Islands

      3, The Nigger of the Narcissus

      4, Lord Jim

      5, The Inheritors

      6, Typhoon

      7, Heart of Darkness

      8, Romance

      9, Nostromo

      10, The Secret Agent

      11, Under Western Eyes

      12, Chance

      13, Victory

      14, The Shadow-Line

      15, The Arrow of Gold

      16, The Rescue

      17, The Nature of a Crime

      18, The Rover

      19, Suspense

      The Short Stories

      20, The Black Mate

      21, The Idiots

      22, The Lagoon

      23, An Outpost of Progress

      24, The Return

      25, Karain: A Memory

      26, Youth

      27, Falk

      28, Amy Foster

      29, To-Morrow

      30, The End of the Tether

      31, Gaspar Ruiz

      32, The Informer

      33, The Brute

      34, An Anarchist

      35, The Duel

      36, Il Conde

      37, A Smile of Fortune

      38, The Secret Sharer

      39, Freya of the Seven Isles

      40, Prince Roman

      41, The Planter of Malata

      42, The Partner

      43, The Inn of the Two Witches

      44, Because of the Dollars

      45, The Warrior’s Soul

      46, The Tale

      The Essays

      47, Notes on Life and Letters

      48, Last Essays

      The Memoirs

      49, The Mirror of the Sea

      50, A Personal Record

      The Criticism

      51, The Criticism

      www.delphiclassics.com

      The Shadow-Line

      A CONFESSION

      This novella was published in New York in 1916 as a serial in the Metropolitan Magazine and then in London in the English Review. Its first book publication was in London by J. M. Dent in 1917. A variation of the ‘coming of age’ story, the novella charts the development of the central character after he becomes Captain of the Orient. The ‘shadow-line’ is the threshold of that development from youthful naivety to maturity, experience and wisdom.

      The novel’s influences and metaphorical layers are myriad, however: the First World War as a context to the writing of the novel lends symbolic significance to Conrad’s use of the shipboard community as a representation of society, whilst the themes of curses, madness and hints of the supernatural lend a Gothic feel to proceedings (although Conrad would later deny this link).

      Cover of the first book edition

      CONTENTS

      PART ONE

      I

      II

      III

      PART TWO

      IV

      V

      VI

      Poster for Andrzej Wajda’s 1976 Polish film of the novel

      Conrad, close to the time of publication

      THE SHADOW-LINE

      A CONFESSION

      Worthy of my undying regard

      To Borys And All Others Who,

      Like Himself, Have Crossed In Early Youth

      The Shadow-Line Of Their Generation With Love

       — D’autre fois, calme plat, grand miroir De mon desespoir. — BAUDELAIRE

      PART ONE

      I

      Only the young have such moments. I don’t mean the very young. No. The very young have, properly speaking, no moments. It is the privilege of early youth to live in advance of its days in all the beautiful continuity of hope which knows no pauses and no introspection.

      One closes behind one the little gate of mere boyishness — and enters an enchanted garden. Its very shades glow with promise. Every turn of the path has its seduction. And it isn’t because it is an undiscovered country. One knows well enough that all mankind had streamed that way. It is the charm of universal experience from which one expects an uncommon or personal sensation — a bit of one’s own.

      One goes on recognizing the landmarks of the predecessors, excited, amused, taking the hard luck and the good luck together — the kicks and the half-pence, as the saying is — the picturesque common lot that holds so many possibilities for the deserving or perhaps for the lucky. Yes. One goes on. And the time, too, goes on — till one perceives ahead a shadow-line warning one that the region of early youth, too, must be left behind.

      This is the period of life in which such moments of which I have spoken are likely to come. What moments? Why, the moments of boredom, of weariness, of dissatisfaction. Rash moments. I mean moments when the still young are inclined to commit rash actions, such as getting married suddenly or else throwing up a job for no reason.

      This is not a marriage story. It wasn’t so bad as that with me. My action, rash as it was, had more the character of divorce — almost of desertion. For no reason on which a sensible person could put a finger I threw up my job — chucked my berth — left the ship of which the worst that could be said was that she was a steamship and therefore, perhaps, not entitled to that blind loyalty which. . . . However, it’s no use trying to put a gloss on what even at the time I myself half suspected to be a caprice.

      It was in an Eastern port. She was an Eastern ship, inasmuch as then she belonged to that port. She traded among dark islands on a blue reef-scarred sea, with the Red Ensign over the taffrail and at her masthead a house-flag, also red, but with a green border and with a white crescent in it. For an Arab owned her, and a Syed at that. Hence the green border on the flag. He was the head of a great House of Straits Arabs, but as loyal a subject of the complex British Empire as you could find east of the Suez Canal. World politics did not trouble him at all, but he had a great occult power amongst his own people.

      It was all one to us who owned the ship. He had to employ white men in the shipping part of his business, and many of those he so employed had never set eyes on him from the first to the last day. I myself saw him but once, quite accidentally on a wharf — an old, dark little man blind in one eye, in a snowy robe and yellow slippers. He was having his hand severely kissed by a crowd of Malay pilgrims to whom he had done some favour, in the way of food and money. His alms-giving, I have heard, was most extensive, covering almost the whole Archipelago. For isn’t it said that The charitable man is the friend of Allah?

      Excellent (and picturesque) Arab owner, about whom one needed not to trouble one’s head, a most excellent Scottish ship — for she was that from the keep up — excellent sea-boat, easy to keep clean, most handy in every way, and if it had not been for her internal propulsion, worthy of any man’s love, I cherish to this day a profound respect for her memory. As to the kind of trade she was engaged in and the character of my shipmates, I could not have been happier if I had had the life and the men made to my order by a benevolent Enchanter.

      And suddenly I left all this. I left it in that, to us, inconsequential manner in which a bird flies away from a comfortable branch. It was as though all unknowing I had heard a whisper or seen something. Well — perhaps! One day I was perfectly right and the next everything was gone — glamour, flavour, interest, contentment — everything. It was one of these moments, you know. The green sickness of late youth descended on me and carried me off. Carried me off that ship, I mean.

      We were only four white men on board, with a large crew of Kalashes and two Malay petty officers. The Captain stared hard as if wondering what ailed me. But he was a sailor, and he, too, had been young at one time. Presently a smile came to lurk under his thick iron-gray moustache, and he observed that, of course, if I felt I must go he couldn’t keep me by main force. And it was arranged that I should be paid off the next morning. As I was going out of his cabin he added suddenly, in a peculiar wistful tone, that he hoped I would find what I was so anxious to go and look for. A soft, cryptic utterance which seemed to reach deeper than any diamond-hard tool could have done. I do believe he understood my case.

      But the second engineer attacked me differently. He was a sturdy young Scot, with a smooth face and light eyes. His honest red countenance emerged out of the engine-room companion and then the whole robust man, with shirt sleeves turned up, wiping slowly the massive fore-arms with a lump of cotton-waste. And his light eyes expressed bitter distaste, as though our friendship had turned to ashes. He said weightily: Oh! Aye! I’ve been thinking it was about time for you to run away home and get married to some silly girl.

      It was tacitly understood in the port that John Nieven was a fierce misogynist; and the absurd character of the sally convinced me that he meant to be nasty — very nasty — had meant to say the most crushing thing he could think of. My laugh sounded deprecatory. Nobody but a friend could be so angry as that. I became a little crestfallen. Our chief engineer also took a characteristic view of my action, but in a kindlier spirit.

      He was young, too, but very thin, and with a mist of fluffy brown beard all round his haggard face. All day long, at sea or in harbour, he could be seen walking hastily up and down the after-deck, wearing an intense, spiritually rapt expression, which was caused by a perpetual consciousness of unpleasant physical sensations in his internal economy. For he was a confirmed dyspeptic. His view of my case was very simple. He said it was nothing but deranged liver. Of course! He suggested I should stay for another trip and meantime dose myself with a certain patent medicine in which his own belief was absolute. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll buy you two bottles, out of my own pocket. There. I can’t say fairer than that, can I?

      I believe he would have perpetrated the atrocity (or generosity) at the merest sign of weakening on my part. By that time, however, I was more discontented, disgusted, and dogged than ever. The past eighteen months, so full of new and varied experience, appeared a dreary, prosaic waste of days. I felt — how shall I express it? — that there was no truth to be got out of them.

      What truth? I should have been hard put to it to explain. Probably, if pressed, I would have burst into tears simply. I

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