Books like The Secret Sharer

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 Siam. The strange young captain finds a stowaway and shelters the other man and the two strike an odd friendship.This story evokes many psychological reactions from the reader, and coming from the author of the Heart of Darkness, the effect is no doubt intensely deliberate. First of all, the title has a double meaning. It could mean a “sharer” of something who is kept secret and it also means a “sharer of a secret”. The young captain risks great loss by aiding the wayward seaman and Conrad, in spare words, illustrates the culture of the seas masterfully. Anyone who has ever been to sea, and not just as a tourist, but one who has worked on a boat, must enjoy reading Conrad and he makes me consider his comparison to the American Melville. It is astounding to realize that English was his second or third language and yet he again demonstrates a virtuosity of ours.