Tabs & Twists
Heart of Darkness
Marlow's river journey into the Congo to find the legendary ivory trader Kurtz becomes a descent into the darkness of empire and of the self.
- Setting / Period
- Colonial Africa
- First published
- 1899
- Pages
- 96
- Language
- English
Review
On a boat anchored in the Thames, Marlow recounts his trip up the Congo River to find Kurtz, an agent whose reputation grows more mysterious the closer he gets. What he finds on the way is brutal, absurd and deeply unsettling.
Conrad's prose is dense and hypnotic, and the novella works as an indictment of colonial greed as much as an exploration of what happens when the thin rules of society fall away. It is also a famously contested text: its portrayal of African people has been rightly criticized, and it is worth reading with that debate in mind.
At under one hundred pages it demands slow, attentive reading. It rewards with images that stay with you, the fog, the river and the last words of Kurtz.
