“THIS could have occurred nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak-the sea entering into the life of most men, and the men know- ing something or everything about the sea, in the way of amusement, of travel, or of bread-winning.”
"Youth" sprang from Joseph Conrad's own experience sailing in the Far East with the merchant navy. In it he captures a young man's exhilaration in the face of danger and the unknown.