The Shadow-Line is a short novel written by Joseph Conrade. It has

often been cited as a metaphor of the First World War, given its timing and references to a long struggle, The novella is notable for its dual narrative structure as well as its ironic constructions.

The Shadow-Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. The novella depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development.

Joseph Conrad（3 December 1857 – 3 August 1935) was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England.He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature.