Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
1857 – 1924
ENPublic Domain
Summary
"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is a novella published in 1899. Sailor Charles Marlow recounts his journey as a steamer captain for a Belgian company deep into the African interior. His assignment: to find Kurtz, an ivory trader who has mysteriously "gone native" at a remote station upriver. Conrad's tale explores European colonialism, power, and morality while questioning the boundary between civilization and savagery. The novella provides a dark meditation on imperialism, drawing unsettling parallels between London and Africa as places shrouded in darkness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Subjects
- Africa — Fiction
- Degeneration — Fiction
- Europeans — Africa — Fiction
- Imperialism — Fiction
- Psychological fiction
- Trading posts — Fiction