The Shadow-Line cover art

The Shadow-Line

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Shadow-Line

By: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Fred Williams
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £11.93

Buy Now for £11.93

About this listen

 Written at the start of the Great War, when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad's supreme effort to open man's eyes to the meaning of war through the stimulus of art. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, this masterpiece of his final period relates the story of a young and inexperienced sea captain whose first command finds him with a ship becalmed in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever. As he wrestles with his conscience and with the sense of isolation that his position imposes, the captain crosses the "shadow-line" between youth and adulthood.

It is the qualities, both individual and collective, needed to confront the ship's crisis that symbolize the qualities needed by humanity, not only to face evil and destruction but also to come to terms with life.

©1923 Joseph Conrad (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks Classics European Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism World Literature War
All stars
Most relevant
I loved the phrasing, strange pronunciation and all. A worthy ending, a reason to persevere although my attention may have slipped a few times.

Here come the cavalry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fred Williams has the most perfect, measured, sonorous voice for this salty tale of coming of age, captaincy and a desperate struggle against both natural foes and the malignant influence of supernatural rumour.

A gripping yarn, read by a pro

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As always Conrad uses three words rather than one “wonderful. This has been an absolute pleasure for me.

Conrad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I did not know this book, thanks to Audible, I benefited from a special offer.
Conrad was a writer who worked at sea,.
This story is typical of how a crew is hired at short notice.
I couldn't get the supposed supernatural part, which is in the introduction. Maybe it's part of sailship lore.
This is a tragic sea story based on the author's experiences.
The narrator, reading a book written in 1917, does a good job.
My grandfather, who brought me up, was from that era, the language, Conrad, is spot on.

A Conrad gem

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very bad recording quality. You should have used a de-esser and a pop filter at least to make the sound better and clearer. In my opinion, such products, even if "included in the subscription", should not be on Audible.

bad recording quality

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews