Heart of Darkness is widely regarded as a masterpiece for its vivid study of race and the greed and ruthlessness of imperialism. Joseph Conrad's poignant novella traces a metaphoric journey into the darkest depths of human nature, following Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a famously idealistic and able man stationed farther along the river. What he finally discovers, however, is a horror beyond imagining.
This collection also includes three of Conrad’s finest short stories: “Youth,” the author’s largely autobiographical tale of a young man’s ill-fated sea voyage, in which Marlow makes his first appearance; “The Secret Sharer,” Conrad's classic doppelgänger tale; and the lesser-known “Amy Forster.” In all of these fictions, Conrad's insight and generous characterizations introduce a colonialist Europe to the flip side of its own shiny sovereign.
About the Author
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) grew up amid political unrest in Russian-occupied Poland. After twenty years at sea with the French and British merchant navies, he settled in England in 1894. Over the next three decades he revolutionized the English novel with books such as Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent, and especially Heart of Darkness, his best-known and most influential work.
A. Michael Matin is a professor in the English Department of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He has published articles on various twentieth-century British and postcolonial writers.
