’Twixt Land and Sea
About this audiobook
’Twixt Land and Sea is a collection of Joseph Conrad’s three short stories—“A Smile of Fortune,” “The Secret Sharer,” and “Freya of the Seven Isles”—published together in a single volume as Conrad meant them to be.
In “A Smile of Fortune,” a ship’s captain meets the seemingly genial Mr. Jacobus and his irritable brother while embarking in the tropics. One a respectable businessman with a considerable reputation, the other a confessed rogue and entrepreneur with no reputation left to lose, the captain is at a loss to determine which he should befriend. In this masterly tale of misplaced loyalty, family feuds, and illicit bargaining, the captain finds himself the unwitting partner in a deeply unorthodox transaction.
In “The Secret Sharer,” Leggatt, formerly chief mate of the Sephora, a neighboring ship in the Gulf, sneaks onto a young, untested captain’s ship and joins him on deck. Leggatt admits to killing a fellow crewman a few weeks ago, for which he was subsequently stripped of his duties and kept under arrest onboard. The captain hides him from his own crew ... and must decide his fate.
Conrad explores how the lust for power can drive men to greatness—or its opposite—in “Freya of the Seven Isles,” a sweeping saga set against a turbulent background of barely suppressed hostilities between Dutch and British merchant navies in the Indian Ocean basin.
About the author
Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in 1857 in the Russian part of Poland. His parents were punished for their Polish nationalist activities, and the family was exiled to northern Russia. At age twelve, after both of his parents had died of tuberculosis, he was sent to live with his uncle in Switzerland. During his youth he attended schools in Krakow, was involved in arms smuggling for the Carlist cause in Spain, and joined the French merchant marine. He continued his naval career for sixteen years in the British merchant navy, and in 1886, he commanded his own ship. In that same year, he became a British citizen and changed his name to Joseph Conrad. He sailed to many parts of the world, including Australia, the West Indies, South America, and the Congo River. It was during theses long journeys that he started to write. At age thirty-six, he ended his sea career, devoted himself entirely to literature, and settled in England. Two years later, he married an Englishwoman, by whom he had two sons. Despite the immediate critical recognition of his major novels, they did not sell well. The family lived in relative poverty until the commercial success of Chance in 1913. Having finally received acclaim, he was offered a knighthood in 1923, which he declined. Conrad died of a heart attack one year later.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.
