A new 2023 edition of Joseph Conrad's classic existential novel The Shadowline from Newcomb Livraria Press with an extensive Afterword and expanded reference materials including including a timeline, character list and discussion questions. The Shadow Line, Joseph Conrad’s 1917 novel, returns in a new edition that will captivate readers and challenge them to explore the human experience. The story follows a young captain’s journey on a merchant ship as he attempts to take control of his own destiny in the face of an unforgiving sea. Conrad invites readers to consider the power of inner resolve, morality, and the consequence of fate. Conrad's last masterpiece is filled with insight and psychological complexity.

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.

"[...]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 [...]".

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Shadow Line: A Confession" by Joseph Conrad. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Shadow-Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine (September-October) in the English Review (September 1916-March 1917) and published in book form in 1917 in the UK (March) and America (April). The novella depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development.The novella is notable for its dual narrative structure. The full, subtitled title of the novel is The Shadow-Line, A Confession, which immediately alerts the reader to the retrospective nature of the novella. The ironic constructions following from the conflict between the 'young' protagonist (who is never named) and the 'old' drive much of the underlying points of the novella, namely the nature of wisdom, experience and maturity. Conrad also extensively uses irony by comparison in the work, with characters such as Captain Giles and the ship's 'factotum' Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.

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 Shadow Line — a short novel based at sea — was first published in 1916. It depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development. Conrad also extensively uses irony by comparison in the work, with characters such as Captain Giles and the ship's «factotum» Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.