The other stories with Marlow as narrator are obviously related works, including Lord Jim (1900; see separate entry) and Heart of Darkness (1902; see separate entry). Closer in theme to "Youth," however, is "The Secret Sharer" (1921;. see separate entry), another story in which the young Marlow undergoes an initiation experience. In "The Secret Sharer," however, Marlow's experience is a private event in the development of his moral judgment, for Marlow there chooses to shelter a man fleeing from a charge of murder. In that short story, Marlow is motivated by his feeling of sympathy and a strange human kinship with the fugitive; hence "The Secret Sharer" describes an experience much more complex than his youthful adventures on the Judea.

Some other Conrad stories describe the experience of a troubled voyage, notably Typhoon (1903; see separate entry) and the novel, The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897). In the latter, the crew...