Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Conrad's 1899 novella, based on his own journey up the Congo, and one of the most contested masterpieces in English. Marlow, a steamboat captain for a Belgian trading company, travels into the interior in search of Mr Kurtz — the company's brilliant agent, who has gone native deep in the jungle and become something between a god and a tyrant. What Marlow finds there is the 'horror, the horror' at the heart of the colonial enterprise — and of the human heart itself. The seed of Apocalypse Now, and still an essential, troubling read.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.