<p>Written at the start of the Great War when his son Borys was at the Western Front <em>The Shadow-Line</em> 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 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.</p> <p>The qualities needed to confront the ship’s crisis symbolize the very qualities needed by humanity not only to face evil and destruction but also to come to terms with life.</p>