The Secret Sharer And Other Great Stories

by Anonymous

1969 PAPERBACK

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the short story form--fell in love with a lot listed here have been favorites since they were assigned in high school: Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge," Cather's "Paul's Case," Chekhov's "The Bet," Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon" (a science fiction story no less), Crane's "The Open Boat," Welty's "The Worn Path," Broun's "The Fifty-First Dragon," Saki's "The Interlopers," and the work that forms part of the title, Conrad's novella, "The Secret Sharer." Anyone with an American high school education will recognize several other authors and titles. Sure, there's a lot of the great short story writers missing--Poe, Hawthorne, Hemingway among others. And many of these are in the public domain and can now be found online. I'd recommend other short story anthologies over this one, particularly Moffett's Point of View or Best American Short Stories of the Century, but this isn't a bad choice when looking for a collection of 23 of the best.

[Stephan Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This old edition contained the stories, "Youth", "The Secret Sharer", and "The Shadow Line". The stories all deal with the same themes of youth, being in first in command and tests against values and experience. They're all written from a first-person narrator, in a very conversational tone (especially for the time period) and often the story unfolds between dialog.

I guess "The Secret Sharer", about a captain who hides a murderer in his cabin and finds his own likeness in him, is the more popular. But my favorite was "The Shadow Line". The narrator, another youth about to give up sea life, finds himself in command of a crew. He's haunted by a sickly second mate who knew the previous captain. The entire ship's crew eventually falls ill after twenty-something days just drifting at sea waiting for wind. The whole thing seems to be some test of endurance and against the haunting reputation of the previous captain. Simply really spooky and eerie. It's almost as if you can hear the narrator questioning himself, growing and understanding as we do too.

[Conchita Matson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorites:
Everything that rises must converge
Silent snow, secret snow
The bet
Act of faith
The interlopers
The fly