Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad, 1899
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Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella. On a boat anchored in the Thames, the sailor Charles Marlow tells his friends how he took a job captaining a river steamer for a Belgian ivory company in the African interior. His real errand is to find Kurtz, an agent far upriver who has become a power unto himself. The journey, the stations of the company and the dying workers along the way turn the story into a hard look at European empire and at what it does to the people who run it.
Where it happens
- Thames estuary The sea-reach of the Thames, where Marlow tells his story aboard the Nellie.1
- London 'The greatest town on earth,' set by Conrad beside Africa as another place of darkness.1
- Congo River The unnamed river up which Marlow's steamer travels.1
- Kindu The innermost station of Conrad's own 1890 journey, up the Lualaba.1
Through time
- 1890Conrad, then 32, is appointed to a Belgian company steamer and sails up the Congo.1
- 1899The story runs in Blackwood's Magazine in February, March and April, the magazine's 1000th issue marking the first part.1
- 1902Published in Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories on 13 November.1
- 1975Chinua Achebe gives his lecture on racism in Conrad's novella.1
- 1979Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now takes the story as its inspiration.1
Who is in it, and behind it
Joseph Conrad author
Polish-born writer who published in English; in 1890 he served on a Congo steamer, the basis of the story.12
Charles Marlow narrator
Sailor who tells the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company.1
Kurtz ivory trader
Agent at a far inner station, the object of Marlow's journey; critics have proposed more than twenty real models.1
Georges-Antoine Klein possible model for Kurtz
Agent who fell ill and died aboard Conrad's steamer; some critics see him in Kurtz.1
Leopold II of Belgium king
Ruler of the Congo Free State, a private colony, where most of the story is set.1
Chinua Achebe critic
Nigerian novelist whose 1975 lecture called the book an offensive and deplorable one that dehumanised Africans.1
Orson Welles adapter
Adapted the story for CBS Radio on 6 November 1938, then planned a film version in 1939.1
Adam Hochschild historian
Author of King Leopold's Ghost (1998), who discussed how scholars read the novella.1
What it is about
Civilised and savage
The book argues there is little difference between 'civilised' people and 'savages', and draws parallels between London and Africa.1
The cost of empire
Marlow's account of conquest as taking land from those with a different complexion is the moral heart of the first part.1
Kurtz and the abyss
Kurtz's writing speaks of civilising while ending with a call to exterminate all the brutes.1
Blank spaces on the map
A childhood fascination with the empty places drives Marlow toward the river.1
Ambiguity and debate
Harold Bloom ties the novella's heavy analysis to Conrad's gift for ambiguity; Achebe's critics say he confuses Marlow with Conrad.1
In its own words
The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. The sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and lights began to appear along the shore. The Chapman lighthouse, a three-legged thing erect on a mudflat, shone strongly.
At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, ‘When I grow up I will go there.’ The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and shall not try now.
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea;
has been one of the dark places of the earth.” He was the only man of us who still “followed the sea.”
The horror! The horror!’ “I blew the candle out and left the cabin.
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.’ “All the pilgrims rushed out to see. I remained, and went on with my dinner. I believe I was considered brutally callous. However, I did not eat much. There was a lamp in there—light, don’t you know—and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark.
The shape of the book
91 chapters, 452,958 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Conrad was 32 in 1890 when a Belgian trading company hired him to serve on a steamer in the Congo, where he briefly took command of a sick captain's boat. He wrote the novella eight years later, drawing on his travel journals, and it ran in three parts in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. At the time the Congo Free State was the private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Critics have argued about the book ever since, from Chinua Achebe's 1975 attack to praise for its ambiguity. This site's text comes from Standard Ebooks' Conrad short fiction collection.
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Sources
Text: SE Conrad 'Short Fiction' collection; /ebooks/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness redirects here; PG 219. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).