The Shadow-Line cover art

The Shadow-Line

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Shadow-Line

By: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Fred Williams
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

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 Transportation

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Nostromo cover art
Almayer's Folly cover art
Youth and Heart of Darkness cover art
Victory cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
The Secret Agent cover art
Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness & More cover art
Under Western Eyes cover art
The Plattner Story and Others cover art
Pierre and John cover art
Billy Budd cover art
The Sea Wolf cover art
Pietr the Latvian cover art
The Listener and Other Stories cover art
The Silent Voyage cover art
Billy Budd cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
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.
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.
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.
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.
This book is crying out for a decent narrator.
Above it names Fred Williams as narrator in the recording it names William Sutherland, who ever it is makes the aged Conrad recalling his first youthful and eventful ship’s command sound like a bumbling old fool. Excruciating! Let’s have new one please.

Great novel let down by the narration

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.