Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad, in which sailor Charles Marlow tells the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing, the Congo Free State—the location of the large and economically important Congo River—was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is given an assignment to find Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition.

Subjects: Africa -- Fiction, Degeneration -- Fiction, Europeans -- Africa -- Fiction, Imperialism -- Fiction, Psychological fiction

Categories: Best Books Ever Listings, Category: British Literature, Category: Classics of Literature, Category: Novels, Movie Books