Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad

Aug 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

The classic novel that inspired Apocalypse Now

A European trading concern hires Marlow to pilot a boat up the Congo River in search of Kurtz—a first-class ivory agent and the manager of the company’s highly profitable Inner Station—who is believed to be on his deathbed. With a handful of pilgrims as his passengers and a crew of cannibals, Marlow steams his way into the African interior. The terrifying discovery he makes at the end of his journey and the horrors he witnesses along the way have thrilled and disturbed readers for more than a century.
 
A searing indictment of imperialism and a haunting exposé of mankind’s savage nature, Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece.
 
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Ratings and reviews

Strange stories without a clear purpose. None of the characters are particularly interesting or memorable. Why did that all happen? It is beyond the daily reality of existence, and below the exitement of fantasy. I cannot belive the first editor accepted this manuscript without revisions. Also, first voice is a turn-off.

Boring at times and a little difficult to understand. Going to try the 1993 movie to see if it might make a little more sense to me

To click "Loved it" diminishes the depth to which Conrad takes the reader while peering into the now-cliched Abyss. Few writers are able to get beyond the cliche. Conrad is one of them.

About the author

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), born to Polish parents in a region of the Russian Empire that is now part of Ukraine, was orphaned at eleven years old and joined the French merchant marine at sixteen. He sailed to the West Indies, Australia, and Borneo, and spent six months captaining a steamer on the Congo River, an experience that inspired his best-known work, Heart of Darkness. One of the great prose stylists, he wrote all of his novels—including the masterworks Lord Jim, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent—in English, his third language.