|
The Shadow Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad, one of his later works, being published in 1917. 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. DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ...
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (December 3, 1857 – August 3, 1924) was a naturalized British novelist of Polish origin. ...
The term the Orient - literally meaning sunrise, east - is traditionally used to refer to Near, Middle, and Far Eastern countries. ...
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 doctor Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.
The novel has often been cited as a metaphor of the First World War, given its timing and references to a long struggle, the importance of camaraderie etc. This viewpoint may also be reinforced by the knowledge that Conrad's son, Boris, was killed in the First World War. Others however see the novel as having a strong supernatural influence, referring to various plotlines in the novella such as the 'ghost' of the previous captain potentially cursing the ship, and the madness of first mate Burns. Conrad himself however denied this link in his author's note, claiming that although critics had attempted to show this link, "there are enough mysteries and marvels in the real world to engage with the folly of the supernatural." Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...
The supernatural (Latin:super- exceeding+nature) comprises forces and phenomena which are beyond the realm of current scientific understanding, and which may actually directly contradict conventional scientific understandings. ...
External links
Project Gutenberg (PG) was launched by Michael Hart in 1971 in order to provide a library, on what would later become the Internet, of free electronic versions (sometimes called e-texts) of physically existing books. ...
|
Feeds |
Contact