Lunchtime read: The Shadow-Line

Most of the first half of this book by Joseph Conrad is taken up by an introduction, bilbiopgraphy and then the author's own note before the text starts. Rather than devle straight into the story (and I should have done this yesterday) here are the highlights of all of the above to put the book in context

Introduction
The book was written in 1916 and the author's son was at war and he came to with a mixture of pride for his offspring's efforts and envy because he was unable to fight himself so he put his energy into this book and finished in in three months

The book includes biographical touches, concurs with Conrad's view of war, which was based on a basic acceptance of human beligerance and was something that he fought hard to keep out of a short stories volume and have printed on its own

Author's note
He dismisses that the book is about the supernatural as some critics must have suggested and instead talks about his owen experiences at sea and the pleasure and importance of commanding a group of men that would die for their comrades