The novella is notable for its dual narrative structure. The full, subtitled title of the novel is The Shadow-Line, A Confession, which immediately alerts the reader to the retrospective nature of the novella. The ironic constructions following from the conflict between the 'young' protagonist (who is never named) and the 'old' drive much of the underlying points of the novella, namely the nature of wisdom, experience and maturity. Conrad also extensively uses irony by comparison in the work, with characters such as Captain Giles and the ship's 'factotum' Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.

介质类型	图书 Paperback Book (平装胶订图书)
已发行	2017年1月7日
ISBN13	9781542408226
出版商	Createspace Independent Publishing Platf
页数	102
商品尺寸	152 × 229 × 5 mm · 145 g
语言	英语