Heart of Darkness (Everyman's Library) - Hardcover

Conrad, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679428011 ISBN 13: 9780679428015

Publisher: Everyman's Library, 1993

Synopsis

In a novella which remains highly controversial to this day, Conrad explores the relations between Africa and Europe. On the surface, this is a horrifying tale of colonial exploitation. The narrator, Marlowe journeys on business deep into the heart of Africa. But there he encounters Kurtz, an idealist apparently crazed and depraved by his power over the natives, and the meeting prompts Marlowe to reflect on the darkness at the heart of all men. This short but complex and often ambiguous story, which has been the basis of several films and plays, continues to provoke interpretation and discussion.

Heart of Darkness grew out of a journey Joseph Conrad took up the Congo River; the verisimilitude that the great novelist thereby brought to his most famous tale everywhere enhances its dense and shattering power.

Apparently a sailor’s yarn, it is in fact a grim parody of the adventure story, in which the narrator, Marlow, travels deep into the heart of the Congo where he encounters the crazed idealist Kurtz and discovers that the relative values of the civilized and the primitive are not what they seem. Heart of Darkness is a model of economic storytelling, an indictment of the inner and outer turmoil caused by the European imperial misadventure, and a piercing account of the fragility of the human soul.

About this title

From the Publisher:

The story of Marlow travelling upriver in central Africa to find Kurtz, an ivory agent as consumed by the horror of human life as he is by physical illness, has long been considered a classic, and continues to be widely read and studied.
This edition, edited by one of the leading figures in "the Conrad controversy", includes an introduction and explanatory notes, as well as a fascinating variety of contemporary documents. The introduction and bibliography have been updated, and two new appendices have been added; the second of these is a selection of Alice Harris's extraordinary but little-known photographs documenting the horrors of colonialism in turn-of-the-century Congo.

From the Author:

For generations an exclusively white community of literary critics treated a variety of thematic and stylistic issues (often with great subtlety and insight) while ignoring "Heart of Darkness" as a commentary on imperialism and racism. My edition does both.

About this edition

• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0679428011
• ISBN 13: 9780679428015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144