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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century First published 1912

The Secret Sharer

by Joseph Conrad 1857–1924

The book, and the century it came out of.

A new captain, unsure of himself and unknown to his crew, takes the anchor watch alone and finds a naked man in the water at the ship’s side — a fugitive from another vessel, and his double in everything but circumstance. Conrad had commanded a ship in those waters and wrote all his fiction in his third language; this is the tightest thing he made. Illustrated with 33 full-page plates — paintings by Munsterhjelm, Steffens and Tudgay among them.

On my right hand there were lines of fishing stakes resembling a mysterious system of half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible in its division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect as if abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to the other end of the ocean; for there was no…
The first sentence of The Secret Sharer
A note on this edition

The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 48 pages
Reading time
about an hour
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501574939
The plates

33 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Moonlight over the Sea, Hjalmar Munsterhjelm
Moonlight over the Sea Hjalmar Munsterhjelm 1876
harbour of Antwerpen, Eugène Louis Boudin
harbour of Antwerpen Eugène Louis Boudin 1876
Coastal View, Willem Frederik de Haas
Coastal View Willem Frederik de Haas 1876
Donkey Stand on the Beach at Scheveningen, Anton Mauve
Donkey Stand on the Beach at Scheveningen Anton Mauve 1876
Vanneuses, femmes aux environs de Carnac, Théodore Valério
Vanneuses, femmes aux environs de Carnac Théodore Valério 1876
Stagshorn Fern and the Young Rajah of Sarawak, Borneo, with Chinese Attendant, Marianne North
Stagshorn Fern and the Young Rajah of Sarawak, Borneo, with Chinese Attendant Marianne North 1876
Afterwards

This book in culture: one version

Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.

  • 2014 Secret Sharer Peter Fudakowski
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Secret Sharer as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Secret Sharer as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Secret Sharer, first published 1912, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501574939, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Secret Sharer?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Joseph Conrad's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 48 pages, which is roughly about an hour of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The Secret Sharer
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