O Passageiro Secreto

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad is a short story / novella of less than 100 pages, yet in it Conrad demonstrates as many great writers do, the simple, elegant power of the short work. Here the writer can succinctly deliver a forceful message in economic fashion. The Secret Sharer is like many of his works (most?) about the seas and a man’s command of a vessel. Also like many of his works, the setting is in the South Seas and we find our narrator taking his first command near the Gulf of Sia [...]

Δεύτερο βιβλίο του Τζόζεφ Κόνραντ που διαβάζω, μετά το αξεπέραστο και τρομερό "Η καρδιά του σκότους" που διάβασα το μακρινό Φεβρουάριο του 2011 και το οποίο ανυπομονώ κάποια στιγμή να ξαναδιαβάσω. Εδώ έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα μεγάλο διήγημα (ή μικρή νουβέλα, όπως το δει κανείς) [...]

One of my all-time favorite authors is Joseph Conrad. His exploration of the human condition as reflected by the men who toil at sea is as profound as any philosophical dissertation by any name philosopher. His theme is man against nature or man against men, His yarns are full of events both in the inner and outer worlds of journeyers at sea or water. "The Heart of Darkness" of course is essential to his success and esteem as an author/adventurer. But he has many other tales that I've read and a [...]

Late update appended.(I actually read this novelette in a combined edition with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but thought I'd switch to this edition for a full review.)The Secret Sharer is a peculiar story. It is quick -- the whole thing is only a few dozen pages long, and can be read in something like an hour. And it is certainly not complex: the plot is very basic.Conrad's prose is a pleasure to read, as always. Despite the fact that it was written towards the end of the Edwardian period, an odd [...]

How do British and American writers avoid being overwhelmed with feelings of envy and shame when reading Joseph Conrad? He was, after all, one of the English language's greatest prose stylists, and it wasn't his first or even second language. (Polish came first and French second for the novelist born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski.) "The Secret Sharer," given its brevity, would be a fine introduction to anyone unfamiliar with Conrad. It's also more approachable than "Heart of Darkness," which [...]

Dark psychological sailing storyA classic tale of a new captain, unfamiliar and unpopular with his crew, and the naked murderer, Leggatt, found overboard, a doppelganger for the unnamed captain in mind and appearance. The book opens with long descriptive sentences, a overflow of words to set the scene. Leggatt comes aboard in the middle of the night, unseen for the entire short story by any but the captain. The psychological drama of the interaction between the two men reminds me of Poe's writin [...]

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad is often a companion piece to other Conrad tales, usually Heart of Darkness, and so the years have passed and I never read this story until tonight because the headline story always caught my attention.The Secret Sharer is a story, not a novella, though it’s a long one, and it’s a perfect example of Conrad using the setting of the southeast Asian seas as a kind of metaphysical symbol for the totality of existence. He depicts beauty, tranquility, boredom, di [...]

My eyes caress the delicate words strewn across the page, tasting the sweet nectar and experiencing the literary pleasure only a skilful painter of words can bring, the existence of the words intertwining with the essence of my being, stroking my heart and stoking the fire of my mindUhmmmm bleh. I'm sorry you read that. :/ Now that I've gotten my rather sorry attempt at being the next Joseph Conrad out of my system, I'll keep going with this review. ;)The Secret Sharer is the second Joseph Conra [...]

2013 has definitely been my year of doppelgänger books. 'The Secret Sharer' belongs on the shelf next to Doestoevsky's 'the Double', Nabokov's 'Despair', Highsmith's 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', and Roth's 'Operation Shylock' and probably 'the Epic of Gilgamesh' too. These are all great doppelgänger books, and Conrad's 'Secret Sharer' is not inferior to any of them. Conrad constantly delivers on the nuance of his language, his thought, and his absolute control of the English language. Conrad's l [...]

A nice quick read yet I wished the plot was a bit more complex. It's my first Joseph Conrad read and definitely not the last for I very much enjoyed his writing style.

Conrad's unusual style very much lends itself to this sort of mysterious tale where we aren't sure if we inhabit a world of ghosts or our own. At times I kept thinking to myself Poe would have recognized this story since so much of the tension is happening in the captain's mind.Unlike a lot of Conrad, however, The Secret Sharer is not trying to be obtuse in how it handles its theme - identity in this case (though that's always Conrad's theme). Nostromo, Heart of Darkness, and especially Lord Jim [...]

CapolavoroLeggere un romanzo come "The secret sharer" in lingua originale con il sostegno di una pur buona traduzione a fronte è indicativo di quanto, nella trasposizione, si perda dell'originale significato, confermando l'idea che ogni opera letteraria dovrebbe poter essere fruibile nella versione in cui è stata prodotta per apprezzarne a pieno le diverse componenti linguistico-espressive e, di conseguenza, interpretarne correttamente il messaggio secondo le intenzioni dell'autore.Ad esempio, [...]

This short, 35 page short story took me 2 1/2 hours to read. Not because it was dense, but because for every minute I read, I spent at least 5 minutes staring off into space And while I admit the scenery was lovely (lake, the rainbow in the fountain, the tiny dog that wouldn't have known what to do with that duck if he'd managed to catch it, etc) I see that scenery all the time, and had no trouble concentrating on either of the books I read earlier in the afternoon. If staring off into space for [...]

Second reading--Conrad' s tale of a novice sea captain viewed with uncertainty by his crew who, alone on-deck one night, discovers a naked "man from the sea" clinging to his boat. The man, Leggat, is a killer, but the narrator, unnamed, keeps him as a stowaway out of an instinctual affection for Leggat, and the knowledge that he is capable of the same crime. The choice to name one but not the other is significant, as the two take on a sometimes overly obvious dual role, with Leggat (named, hence [...]

I enjoyed the writing style, but the ship technicalities made it hard for me to get through. The plot was very slow until the last two pages. (3-1/2 Stars)

On its face, this book about a murderer stowaway and the captain that tries to save him is a suspenseful and exciting tale. The psychological thriller aspects--is the stowaway real? Is the captain just losing his mind under the pressure of his first captaincy?--are fascinating. Probably Conrad's best work.

Meh. Wouldn't have finished this if it wasn't for uni.

"Il compagno segreto", ovvero la tensione tra la propria personalità pubblica e il suo lato nascosto; tra la libertà quasi anarchica del fuorilegge, unico giudice delle proprie azioni, e l'uomo civile, perfettamente inserito in una società di leggi giuste e incorruttibili. Il capitano è al suo primo comando: un estraneo sulla sua stessa nave, che ancora non conosce. I suoi sforzi per custodire il suo "doppio" segreto rivelano in modo inequivocabile la diffidenza e l'ostilità dell'equipaggio [...]

It's very interesting how one can so intimately relate to someone who is an absolute stranger - Conrad captures this so unbelievably well, to the point of the narrator's potential self-destruction. The man is entirely willing to sacrifice his livelihood, his career, the opinion of his men, and even the ship of which he is captain for the sake of a complete stranger.But it's also a selfish act. As much as the narrator believes this stranger to be a mirror of his own self, as much as he feels so e [...]

Doppelgängers gone mad with intuition.

New Skipper Saves Swimmer, Shows MoxieJoseph Conrad wrote a number of classic novels. This is one of them. Like some sort of literary health tonic packed full of vitamins, minerals, and health-restoring properties, , THE SECRET SHARER contains enough symbolism, ideas, and plot to keep analysts busy for centuries. It is full of sea lore, the nature of flat, tropic seas. It is hard to find an original thing to say in review, so much has been already written. The author operated at three levels. He [...]

Surreal.

Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer is a drama novel somehow both minimal and scope and difficult to read through, with enough detail personal to his writing style to stay memorable. The plot is set against the Gulf of Siam on a nameless cargo ship headed towards Britain; centering upon the first-person perspective of its captain as a strange, coincidental circumstance subtly pits him against his own moral and duteous code. Like the ship, the central character is a nameless young captain newly [...]

Conrad, Joseph. THE SECRET SHARER. (1912). ****. This is a Folio Society edition of Conrad’s two volumes of short stories: “’Twixt Land and Sea, (1912),” and “Tales of Hearsay, (1925).” The first set – the more famous of the two – contains the short stories “A Smile of Fortune,” The Secret Sharer,” and “Freya of the Seven Isles.” The second collection contains “The Warrior’s Soul,” Prince Roman,” “The Tale,” and “The Black Mate.” They are all excellent s [...]

I had forgotten just how beautiful Conrad's writing is. His descriptions are perfect (coming from someone who hates reading description); he is so good at setting the dark mood of which he seems to be so fond.The Secret Sharer is a short story and is as such distinctly lacking in plot. It can, perhaps, be summed up in a single sentence: the narrator, new captain of a ship in the Gulf of Siam, takes aboard a fugitive named Leggatt(view spoiler)[, whom he hides in his cabin and eventually allows t [...]

I didn't think much if after I had read it. I was ambivalent at best. Until I began to recount it to a co-worker who asked what it had been about I started at the beginning mentioned a few introductory details, the next thing I knew I pushing through the plot points and racing toward the conclusion - as I was talking I was becoming more and more excited, I was exuberantly recalling the final moments of the text where every thread came together in a white knuckled finale that was as unexpected as [...]

A short story from Conrad's 'Twixt Land and Sea published as a Penguin 60s Classic.An amusing and well constructed short story about a sea captain, new to his vessel, who takes on board in the dead of night a man from a ship anchored nearby.Keeping the man's presence a secret from the crew leaves the captain looking eccentric and somewhat foolish.Not much more to say without spoiling the story. An enjoyable short read. 4 Stars.

4.0 starsical, elusive , powerfullI felt like observing a masterpiece painting but could not grasp the truest massage the artist wanted to convey.Great story. Good for a change of stage background. I mean bookwise.

Killer language. Great storytelling. Could be mistaken for Kafka with some of those descriptions concerning man's consciousness with regards to his surroundings. My second Conrad and I plan to keep going.

Only my second book read of Conrad but again, I found it interesting. This was not as difficlt a read as Heart of Darkness and well worth the time.