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The Secret Sharer

Joseph Conrad

3.63 · Rating details · 5,235 ratings · 326 reviews

A young man sets out on his first voyage as captain, aboard a vessel and among a crew that are equally unfamiliar to him. A mysterious night-swimmer climbs aboard, and, in keeping the presence of this fugitive a secret, the skipper risks both his captaincy and the safety of his ship. A test of nerve in the Gulf of Siam ensues.

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Paperback, 64 pages

Published September 9th 2007 by FQ Publishing (first published September 1910)

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Mar 07, 2013 Lyn rated it really liked it

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. ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 J.M. Hushour rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"I rejoiced in the great security of the sea as compared with the unrest of the land, in my choice of that untempted life presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its appeal and the singleness of its purpose."

A fine trio of stories by the poetic sea-dog Conrad.
"Youth" is the other story to feature Marlow, of "Heart of Darkness" fame, tells of his early years aboard a doomed but persistent ship.
"Typhoon", one of Conrad's f ...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Manny rated it it was amazing

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 ...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Richard rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic, fiction, short-story-or-stories

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 ...more

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Apr 19, 2020 Timothy Urges rated it liked it · review of another edition

There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with one’s sight, because it was only just before the sun left us that my roaming eyes made out beyond the highest ridges of the principal islet of the group something which did away with the solemnity of perfect solitude. The tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with tropical suddenness a swarm of stars came out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand resting lightly on my ship’s rail as if on the shoulder of a trusted fr ...more

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Feb 02, 2018 Bob Newman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: european-literature

New Skipper Saves Swimmer, Shows Moxie

Joseph 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 New Skipper Saves Swimmer, Shows Moxie

Joseph 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 wrote an adventure story about an escaping murderer who "didn't mean to do it". The narrator, a sea captain on his first command, discovers Legatt, the murderer, in the sea beside his (the captain's) ship, saves him, hides him, and sympathizes with his predicament. They had gone to the same school in Britain, but did not know each other. Legatt's rescuer engages in all kinds of schemes and dissembling to prevent his discovery. Finally, the narrator-captain orders his ship off course, risks running aground, but helps Legatt to escape to a jungled Southeast Asian island. On a second level, Conrad makes the reader weigh the rights and wrongs of these actions. Such behavior-hiding a wanted man---is totally contrary to what is expected of a ship's captain; thus a terrible conflict is introduced into the story at once. Conrad introduces many pros and cons---Legatt did save his ship in a storm and committed the murder while doing so. He was given his seaman's job through pull, though, not through skill, and so, perhaps, was not equal to the captain, who had worked his way up. We have to consider the narrator-captain too, he lies, he behaves in a tricky fashion, and his subsequent erratic behavior undermines the confidence of his men.

Above all, THE SECRET SHARER, at 61 pages, one of the shortest great novels, is a psychological masterpiece. I am hardly the first to note that in fact, the two main characters, the honorable criminal and the criminal honorable man, may be one and the same. Legatt may be the narrator's alter-ego, the embodiment of his fears about his first command, guiding a ship through treacherous seas, commanding men he does not know. When Legatt jumps into the sea near Koh-ring, the captain realizes that he will be able to successfully command a ship. Legatt may be the captain's subconscious fears come to life, but the latter must hide the escapee as he must hide his fears. You may say that this novel is very cleverly constructed, or else Conrad touched his own subconscious in ways few writers ever have. In either case, it is a work of genius. ...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Daniel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2009

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 ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Haaze rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-20th-century, lit-english, x_conrad, rec_lebr, 2020, sea

Tantalizing. I usually have an initial barrier as I dive into a Conrad work, but the Secret Sharer drew me right in. Such a wonderful story which ultimately left me brooding about life and existence itself.
Conrad's language has its own flavors and I'm starting to suspect that it has to do with his Polish core in terms of language. He writes in English, but there is something else there in terms of syntax. Perhaps it is my imagination? Blended with the realm of the sea, sail ships and nautical t ...more

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Oct 22, 2017 Goth Gone Grey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, 2017

Dark psychological sailing story

A 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 ...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

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 lit ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 Robert rated it really liked it

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, discip 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, discipline, contentiousness and the travails of the human psyche out there, all in beautifully cadenced sentences that capture the rhythms of life aboard ship under hot suns and fickle winds.

In this case, Conrad adds piquancy. A young captain finds himself harboring a man who has fled another ship because he had murdered a shipmate during a storm. He keeps this man, who swims to him, hidden in his compartment, and the man becomes something like a double--he’s often referred to as such--but even better something like the Cain in everyone, the dark side of the captain, his doubts about his worthiness to command a vessel, his questions about his judgments and authority, the pressures placed on anyone, really, who is wallowing about the seas and has too much time to think and too little to think with or about...except himself.

The double is a seemingly inexhaustible fixture in literature. Writers use it to get at aspects of a character that can’t be deployed in a single personality. They use it to posit innocence on the one hand and original sin on the other. They use it to make irony concrete and capture the unease that underlies almost every personality. There is waking life and there is dream life. There is private life and there is public life. Humor and tragedy. Doubles serve all these features of existence.

The beauty of Conrad’s writing is that his thoughtfulness is embedded in the events of the narrative. There are certainly moments when he pauses to let a narrator philosophize, but his real gift is to turn a ship, or a city, into a kind of a stage where the action unfolds the meaning without calling excessive attention to itself.

What any double does for each of us, of course, is bring us to the fork in the road, Frost’s road not taken, and push us to ask whether it matters what destiny holds in store for us...if it could just as well be quite different in the life of the double.

Yet at the same time, Conrad finds a kind of adhesion between his two figures, the captain and the stowaway, a moral bond, an element of concern. They part ways and yet they don’t. Years later they will remember this peculiar episode, and the risks each took to arrange a final parting.

For his clarity, his descriptiveness, his insight, his economy of plot and symbol, Conrad has always represented for me a writer of fiction of the first order. Yes, he’s a romantic of sorts, but the discipline of the ship keeps him honest.

If you’ve read The Secret Sharer, it’s worth rereading. If not, it’s worth taking up for a first time. Here is fiction that is one thing, a single piece of tapestry, that unfolds with uninterrupted excellence, the diction right, the minor characters right, the deeper quandaries of the main characters right. ...more

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Jun 11, 2014 Dan rated it really liked it

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 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 are dense, almost opaque works that behave like a fitted sheet too small for the bed; you can get three corners figured out, but never a fourth and around and around you go. And while Conrad never lets slip if Leggatt is physical or phantom, that concern is not front and center to the plot because he is more interested in how our unnamed captain deals with this mystery man.

In a way it's sort of a clunky plot device, but Conrad handles it well enough and makes Leggatt illusive enough so that he doesn't need to try and explain him too much. He is, for the most part, exactly like our narrator (even in appearance), but represents an alter personality. Where Leggatt would easily kill a man for not doing his duty, our narrator is more of a rules and regulations man - a man of little experience.

There's a wonderful image near the beginning where a scorpion gets into a bottle of ink and drowns. This fascinating image could mean that all the written rules and regulations will mean nothing when a person truly needs to act, or it could mean laws and papers only get in the way of how men should (and must) behave. There can always be deception in the act of writing, but actions speak louder than words, even those written down. In fact the other captain, Captain Archbold, admits he'll claim Leggatt committed suicide to avoid any nasty consequences and perhaps ruin his own career over it.

The other ideas of coming of age, of a young man learning to take command and setting aside his own doubts is clear enough here, however, we should realize that our captain is unnamed and that he must become like someone else, Leggatt. Our captain was, in many ways, not good enough to lead, he was chosen over other candidates more qualified (probably) and so he must assume a role, he must not remain himself if he wants to succeed. There is no hint that the strength lay within him the whole time, he had to assume a new identity.

This is an unsettling thought because what Conrad seems to be saying is that in order to succeed we cannot rely on our true nature, we have to become something else. The mate, for example, is always described as having this interesting beard, almost like a lions mane, but isn't he also hiding behind a persona? Isn't he also frightened as they sail so close to the island? Couldn't he have struck our captain, taken command, and steered the ship to safety himself? But he didn't and he betrayed to us his true nature.

So as usual Conrad is not so simple as we first think, far more is going on here and what we assume to be one thing is actually something else.

...more

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May 21, 2013 Victoria Yang rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of Joseph Conrad, or people who want to read a Conrad work shorter than HoD

Shelves: owned-books, classics

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 mind...

Uhmmmm... 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 ...more

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Feb 16, 2017 Imene Tl rated it liked it

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. ...more

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Sep 01, 2020 Amy rated it really liked it

The Secret Sharer should get more attention than it does. Short but very compelling story.

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Nov 03, 2016 Chris rated it really liked it

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 s ...more

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Feb 10, 2015 Nick rated it really liked it

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 ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Holly McKie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: university, classics

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

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Apr 01, 2017 Valorie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, grad-school

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 26, 2018 Gary rated it it was amazing

You read and read, but there stands Conrad.

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May 25, 2014 Melanti rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, classics, 2014, short-story-novella

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 ...more

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Jan 22, 2016 Daren rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk-author, p60s, 4-star, south-east-asia, fiction, fiction-short-story-ies, thailand

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. ...more

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Sep 26, 2014 Katy rated it it was ok

Short enough that I should have finished it in one sitting, but it did not keep my attention. Psychologically there is much more going on in the story than I caught upon this first reading. The story is one of the duality of the self, I think; as the captain changes from an uncertain commander to a better captain.

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Aug 21, 2015 Tracy Reilly rated it it was amazing

Doppelgängers gone mad with intuition.

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Aug 31, 2016 Lauren Hawkins rated it liked it

Shelves: class-reading

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)

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Jan 15, 2021 David C Ward rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Conrad knew Melville’s novels and didn’t like them. I don’t know if he had read Billy Budd but this “tale” (a format favored by the American as well as Hawthorne which the Secret Sharer also resembles) but the similarity in theme is uncanny, except in reverse. In Budd, Captain Vere does his duty despite his sympathy for the sailor. In Conrad, the instant bond between the inexperienced captain and the runaway leads the former to NOT do his duty, including to the crew who he confuses and endangers ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Taju Noor rated it liked it

The Captain becoming assured of his rank at the end of story. I, no we all can relate to it.

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Apr 13, 2020 Vivian Rapacciuolo rated it really liked it

this is....the most romantic book I've ever read. and I read it all in one sitting. Atmospheric and exciting and perfect when you've got cabin fever from being in quarantine for a month ...more

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Apr 22, 2020 Rahul Tirumalareddy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: post-high-school-reading

Let me tell you a secret — this book isn’t very good.

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Mar 08, 2020 Leena Anandhi rated it it was amazing

I read it without introductions or commentaries. To tell you the truth I had no clue about Conrad too. The nautical terms were a challenge, but the narrator did manage to take you along his nerve wracking dilemma. I never did imagine if the sharer could have been a ghost but somehow could understand the instant connection and empathy that you feel with a stranger that is so irrational but may have a subconscious reason perhaps of a shared emotion, situation, an expression or even the helplessnes ...more

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About Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad

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Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.

Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard ...more

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Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

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Quotes from The Secret Sharer

“Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank -- but that's not the same thing.” — 1042 likes

“Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but fear too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions."

"Nice little saloon, isn't it" I said, as if noticing it for the first time.

"At noon I gave no orders for change of course, and the mates whiskers grew much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves to my unduly notice.” — 9 likes

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