Originally published as a collection in 1912, &quot;Twixt Land and Sea&quot; contains three long stories written for magazines in the 1909 -1911 period.&nbsp;<br /><br />&rsquo;<i>The Secret Sharer</i>&rsquo; is one of the great tales in the English language, but, although not major works, the others&mdash;&rsquo;<i>Freya of the Seven Isles</i>&rsquo; and &rsquo;<i>A Smile of Fortune</i>&rsquo;&mdash; deserve to be read more than they are. All three tales explore a young captain under stress. Although in this period of renewed personal and financial turmoil Conrad&rsquo;s imagination turns nostalgically to life at sea, the sea is no longer the simplified world of &quot;Typhoon&quot; or &quot;The End of the Tether&quot;, where moral distinctions are clear. In these tales, a young captain is faced with circumstances and emotional traumas for which neither the maritime code nor his experience has prepared him.&nbsp;