The Bookstore / Books
Title: Heart
of Darkness
Author: Joseph Conrad
First Published in: 1902
On board a boat anchored peacefully in the Thames the narrator,
Marlow, tells the story of his journey on another River
Travelling in Africa to join a cargo boat, Marlow grows
disgusted by what he sees of the greed of the ivory
traders and their brutal exploitation of the natives. At
a company station he hears of the remarkable agent Mr
Kurtz who is stationed in the very heart of the ivory
country. Marlow makes a long and arduous cross-country
trek to join the steamboat which he will command on an
ivory collecting journey into the interiour, but at the
Central Station he finds that his boat has been
mysteriously wreched. He learns that Kurtz has dismissed
his assistant and is seriously ill. With repairs
completed Marlow sets off on the two-month journey
towards Kurtz. The river passage through the heavy
motionless forest fills Marlow with a growing sense of
dread. Nearing its destination the boat is attacked by
tribesmen and a helmsman is killed. At the Inner Station
Marlow is met by a naive young Russian sailor who tells
Marlow of Kurtz's brilliance and the semi-divine power he
exercises over the natives. A row of severed heads on
stakes round the hut give an intimation of the barbaric
rites by which Kurtz has achieved his ascendancy. While
Marlow attempts to get Kurtz back down the river Kurtz
tries to justify his actions and his motives: he has seen
into the very heart of things. But dying his last words
are: 'The horror! The horror!' Marlow is left with two
packages to deliver, Kurtz's report for the Society for
Suppression of Savage Customs, and some letters to his
girlfriend.
Text file provided by:
Online Book Initiative (OBI)
[86kB
Zip file]