Story summary
Краткое содержание: Тайный сообщник
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 8 parts
- Аудио скоро
A young captain alone on night watch finds a naked swimmer clinging to his ladder, and hides him from the whole ship.
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Тайный сообщник — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 1 h 5 min50 min fast, 1 h 20 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 15 700
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1910by Джозеф Конрад
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Тайный сообщник in short
The Secret Sharer follows a young captain over several days at the start of a homeward voyage. He is new to his ship and unsure of himself. A swimmer called Leggatt climbs the side ladder and confesses to killing a man aboard the Sephora.
What Тайный сообщник is about
What would you do if a naked stranger rose out of a dark sea and told you he had killed a man? The young captain in this story has no time to think. He has been in command for two weeks, and he is alone on deck.
Joseph Conrad, who spent years at sea before he became a novelist, wrote The Secret Sharer. It is a short tale of one ship, a few days, and two men so alike that the captain calls the stranger his double. You follow the captain as he hides his guest and steers toward a black island in the dark.
Для кого. This story suits readers who love sea tales, quiet suspense and close portraits of a mind under strain. It also speaks to anyone drawn to doubles, secrets and loyalty.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A stranger takes command of a still ship
The story opens at the head of the Gulf of Siam. A tug has just towed the ship out of the river Meinam, and the young captain watches it vanish. The sea lies flat and solid. Nothing moves, not a canoe, not a bird, not a cloud.
The captain feels out of place in this calm. He took command only a fortnight earlier. He knows almost nothing about his officers or the men forward, who have sailed together for eighteen months. He is a stranger to the ship and, in some way, to himself.
He knows the route well. What he does not know is how it feels to be responsible for it all. At supper the chief mate, a man buried in whiskers, says Bless my soul to almost everything. Then the captain makes an odd decision. He tells the mate to set no anchor watch. He will keep watch himself, alone with his ship, so that he can get to know her.
A captain who feels like an outsider chooses a strange watch, and that choice puts him on deck when the night brings its visitor.
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A swimmer clings to the side ladder
The captain walks his quiet deck in his sleeping suit, barefoot, with a cigar.
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Leggatt tells the story of the killing
Standing by the wheel, Leggatt makes his confession.
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The captain hides his guest in plain sight
The captain hurries Leggatt to his own cabin, which is shaped like the letter L. A person at the door cannot see the long part behind the coats and lockers.
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A visitor from the Sephora searches for his man
The skipper of the Sephora arrives by boat.
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Scares at sea and a plan for the island
When the wind rises, the ship begins to move, and the captain feels the joy of his first command.
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Two men who share one conscience
The central idea of the tale is the double.
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How the story is told and what it means
The captain tells the whole tale himself, looking back.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- The captain A young, unnamed captain in his first command, a stranger to his ship and crew, who wants to prove himself and finds he must act against the rules.
- Leggatt The former chief mate of the Sephora, a strong swimmer and a parson's son, who is on the run after killing a man and wants to vanish for good.
- The chief mate A serious, whiskered officer who likes to explain everything and who grows more alarmed as the new captain behaves in ways he cannot account for.
- The second mate A quiet, round-cheeked young officer who knows more than he says and whose lips tremble at the captain's odd orders.
- The steward A nervous servant who keeps coming into the captain's cabin and comes close to finding the secret, though the captain fears him all the time.
- Captain Archbold The red-whiskered captain of the Sephora, shaken and persistent, who comes searching for his missing mate and insists the law must take its course.
How it ends (spoiler)
The captain steers the ship in so close to Koh-ring that the mate and crew panic, believing they are lost. He holds his nerve and puts the ship about. Leggatt slips out through the sail locker and lowers himself into the sea. The captain's floppy hat, which he pressed on Leggatt, floats on the water and shows him that the ship is moving. He turns the ship away in time. As the hat drifts astern, he sees it mark where Leggatt swims off, a free man, toward a new life.
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Вопросы о книге Тайный сообщник
What is The Secret Sharer about?
A young captain on his first command finds a swimmer clinging to his ship's ladder at night. The man, Leggatt, is a fugitive who killed a sailor on another ship. The captain hides him in his cabin and risks his command to help him.
Who is Leggatt in The Secret Sharer?
Leggatt is the former chief mate of the Sephora, a strong swimmer and a parson's son from Norfolk. He is locked in his cabin after a death in a storm, escapes by swimming at night, and finds refuge aboard the narrator's ship.
Why is the story called The Secret Sharer?
The captain feels so alike to Leggatt that he calls him his double and his other self. He shares his cabin, his clothes, his food and his thoughts in secret, and the title names that hidden, shared life.
What does the double mean in The Secret Sharer?
Leggatt stands for the captain's other self, a man of decision and nerve. By hiding him, the captain tests his own courage and learns who he is. Readers see him as a mirror, a conscience, or the self a young man hopes to become.
Is The Secret Sharer easy to read?
It is a short tale with a clear, suspenseful plot. The narrator speaks plainly, the scenes are vivid, and the action stays close to one ship and one cabin. Sea terms are easy to follow from context, and many readers finish it in a single sitting.
Как сослаться на это издание
Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Sharer. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-sharer.
Conrad, J. (2026). The secret sharer. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-sharer (Original work published 1910)
Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Sharer. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-sharer.
@book{conrad2026secret,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {The Secret Sharer},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-sharer},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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