Audiobook · read by volunteers
Mirror of the Sea
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
Read by Peter Kelleher · 16 chapters · 8 h 06
About the book
Joseph Conrad spent twenty years at sea before he became a writer, and in The Mirror of the Sea he looks back on that life. These essays, first published in magazines in the early 1900s, are not a plain memoir. They are meditations on ships, storms, harbours, sailors and the ocean itself, written with the sharp eye and rich language of a master novelist. He writes about the beauty of a sailing ship, the character of a gale and the danger of the coast. There is a strong feeling of loss for a world that was passing, as steam replaced sail. It is a book of deep affection for the sea and for those who sail on it. A thoughtful book for everyone who has looked out over the water and wondered.
Introduction
Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 in a part of the Russian Empire that is now in Ukraine, and he died in 1924 in England. He went to sea as a young man, serving in the French and then the British merchant navy, and became a British subject in 1886. He began to write novels in English, his third language, and produced such works as Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness and Nostromo, which are now regarded as classics of modern literature.
The Mirror of the Sea was published in 1906, after being serialised in magazines in 1904 to 1906. It is a collection of autobiographical essays, and it shows Conrad as a writer who understood the sea from the inside. Some pieces describe particular experiences, while others reflect more generally on the art of seamanship, the character of ships and the sailors who serve in them. The book has often been praised for its prose, which captures the movement and power of the water.
This recording contains sixteen sections and lasts a little over eight hours. It is read by a single LibriVox volunteer. For readers who know Conrad only from his novels, it is a revelation of his voice in a more personal form. For anyone who loves the sea, it is a deeply atmospheric book, with passages that stay in the memory.
The essays can be heard in any order, and each one has its own character. Some are practical, concerned with seamanship; others are lyrical, evoking the sea in its many moods. Together they form a tribute to the sea and to the people who spend their lives on it, written by a man who never forgot it.
Public domain
Joseph Conrad died in 1924: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text