Non-Fictional Prose

Abstract

At the beginning of 1902 Conrad spoke of writing ‘some autobiographical matter about Ships, skippers, and an adventure or two’; the result was The Mirror of the Sea, a collection of essays published in 1906, which according to Frederick R. Karl ‘began as a somewhat loose collaboration with Ford, with the latter jogging Conrad’s memory and taking notes as Conrad dictated’. Subtitled ‘Memories and Impressions’, the book consists of a series of reminiscences of, and meditations on, the sea, ships and sailors. The ‘Author’s Note’ (added in 1919) describes it as ‘a very intimate revelation’ in which the author has ‘attempted to lay bare with the unreserve of a last hour’s confession the terms of my relation with the sea’, and as a tribute to ‘the ultimate shapers of my character, convictions, and, in a sense, destiny — to the imperishable sea, to the ships that are no more, and to the simple men who have had their day’.