Youth (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joseph Conrad
- First Published: 1898
- Type of Plot: Adventure
- Time of Work: 1880
- Setting: Aboard an English freighter bound for the East
- Principal Characters: Marlowe, Captain John Beard, Mahon
- Genres: Short fiction, Bildungsroman, Adventure, Sea story
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Voyages, Nature, Leadership, Autobiography, Storms, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Sea or seafaring life, Shipwrecks, Fire, Weather
- Locales: Asia, Oceans, Great Britain
The Story
At age forty-two, Marlowe sits drinking with four other Englishmen who began their working lives in the merchant service. Most have other work ashore now, but they share the bond of seafaring men. He tells them the story of his first trip to the East, when he was an adventurous young man of twenty and had hired on for the first time as an officer, second mate on an old freighter bound for Bangkok.
Engraved on the stern of the ship was “Judea, London. Do or Die,” a grandiloquent motto that appealed to the youthful enthusiasm of her youngest officer. Her...
[The entire page is 1543 words long]
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