Heart of Darkness

Bol

A tale of horror, set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century. The story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation of European and African societies and the cataclysmic behaviour this induced in some individuals. Introduction and Notes by Gene M. Moore, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Generally regarded as the pre-eminent work of Conrad's shorter fiction, Heart of Darkness is a chilling tale of horror which, as the author intended, is capable of many interpretations. Set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century, the story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation of European and African societies and the cataclysmic behaviour this induced in some individuals. The other two stories in this book – Youth and The End of the Tether – concern the sea and those who sail upon it, a genre in which Conrad reigns supreme.

Bol Partner

Written in the last year of the nineteenth century, Heart of Darkness can be seen in many ways as the first twentieth-century novel.Its climate of doubt and vagueness, its loss of moral confidence and its need for belief in the midst of spiritual wilderness, its exploration of the subconscious and its affirmation of individual freedom are all themes that were to have an influence on writers such as Orwell, Golding, Céline, Borges and Eliot.In Heart of Darkness Conrad unfolds the story of Marlow's search for Mr Kurtz, the company agent whose "unlawful soul" has been "beguiled beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations" in his dealings with the natives of the Belgian Congo. Marlow's adventure involves him in a crucial reappraisal of his own values. It is Kurtz, however, who attains to a vision of the inexpressible, terrifying reality of the heart, in this extraordinary exploration of human savagery and despair.The cover shows a detail from The Steamer Stanley by F. Hens