Heart of Darkness

By: Conrad, Joseph

Heart of Darkness tells a story within a story. The novella begins with a group of passengers aboard a boat floating on the River Thames. One of them, Charlie Marlow, relates to his fellow seafarers an experience of his that took place on another river altogether-the Congo River in Africa. Marlow's story begins in what he calls the "sepulchral city," somewhere in Europe. There "the Company"-an unnamed organization running a colonial enterprise in the Belgian Congo-appoints him captain of a river steamer. He sets out for Africa optimistic of what he will find.But his expectations are quickly soured. From the moment he arrives, he is exposed to the evil of imperialism, witnessing the violence it inflicts upon the African people it exploits. As he proceeds, he begins to hear tell of a man named Kurtz-a colonial agent who is supposedly unmatched in his ability to procure ivory from the continent's interior. According to rumour Kurtz has fallen ill (and perhaps mad as well), thereby jeopardizing the Company's entire venture in the Congo.Marlow is given command of his steamer and a crew of Europeans and Africans to man it, the latter of whom Conrad shamelessly stereotypes as "cannibals." As he penetrates deeper into the jungle, it becomes clear that his surroundings are impacting him psychologically: his journey is not only into a geographical "heart of darkness" but into his own psychic interior-and perhaps into the darkened psychic interior of Western civilization as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08R7GY6QB
• ISBN13: 9798559407043
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 44 Pages
• Weight: 0.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A study of man

Heart of Darkness is well written. The idea of a storyteller in the story is not unique but very effective. We could ponder over the word darkness for quite some time. The best way to ponder is with Cliff's Notes. I wanted him to get on with it. I guess I was a little impatient for the action and the conclusion. If it hadn't been for Cliff Notes, I would have missed half the things he was implying. A merchant company is missing an agent, Kurtz, and Marlowe must find him. Traveling through harsher environments than he imagined possible, he may have found what he was seeking. As with many of this type of epic, the physical distance or direction is not as important as the transformation it plays on one’s soul. I missed this book somehow in school. The reason I started to read this book before I became immersed in it was to see how close it came to the movie. No, not the movie you are thinking of. "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" (1988). The film was shot primarily in the avocado groves maintained by the University of California at Riverside (UCR), which the university uses for horticultural experiments. Adrienne Barbeau is Dr. Kurtz. The horror.... the horror... So you will want to see the movie “Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death” (1989) by Adrienne Barbeau as Dr. Kurtz. Or another adaptation, “Apocalypse Now” (1979).