"Written in 1915, and based on a sequence of Conrad's own experiences some twenty-seven years previously, the novel tells the story of a young sea captain on his first command, coping with a ship becalmed in tropical seas, a crew laid low by fever, and the conviction that his own incompetence is somehow to blame. The novel is narrated from the perspective of one who, having crossed the 'shadow-line' that marks the boundary of early youth, finds himself in a region where, in the words of the older Captain Giles, 'a man should stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience, and all that sort of thing'."--BOOK JACKET.