The Mirror of the Sea

E-004: Harper & Brothers. Good+. 1906. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York. 1906. Vi, 328 pgs. First Edition/First Printing. Blue-cloth binding with nautical illustration in gold and yellow on the front cover and yellow lettering on front cover and spine. Boards have a light scuff along the spine. Previous owner's name and Chiristmas dedication present to the FFEP. Text is clean and free of marks, binding tight and solid. Joseph Conrad is a largely enigmatic presence in his novels, but in The Mirror of the Sea, written in "tribute to the sea, its ships, and its men, to whom I remain indebted for so much which has gone to make me what I am" allows the reader to pierce the veil and explore Conrad's biography. Conrad's writes of adventures about smuggling arms to Don Carlos, a claimant to the Spanish throne, and characters like the great-uncle who once had to eat a Lithuanian dog during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. They also let us see inside the young man who broke with his Polish background and was deeply inspired by the resilience and devotion to duty of his fellow British sailors. Every page is filled with a powerful moral intelligence and sense of history. EB; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 329 pages .