Heart of DarknessFor many years Heart of Darkness has been considered a great novella, one of a few great short novels in the Western canon. Because it addresses directly the ambiguity of good and evil, when it was first published the novel foreshadowed many of the themes and stylistic devices that define modern literature. One of Conrad's finest stories, loosely based on the author's experience of rescuing a company agent from a remote station in the heart of the Congo, Heart of Darkness is set in an atmosphere of mystery and lurking danger, and tells of Marlow's perilous journey up the Congo River to relieve his employer's agent, the fabled and terrifying Mr. Kurtz. What Marlow sees on his journey horrifies and perplexes him, and what his encounter with Kurtz reveals calls into question all of his assumptions about civilization and human nature. Endlessly reinterpreted by critics and read in schools by countless students, the novel has been adapted numerous times for film-most famously Apocalypse Now-and shows Conrad at his finest, most intense, and most sophisticated. Heart of Darkness was originally published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1899 and published in book form in 1902. The present text derives from Doubleday's collected edition of Conrad's works, published in 1920-1921. |
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absurd all-fours amongst appeared asked bank began bewitched big river burst bush can’t chap coast crawled cried darkness dead dear boys deck devil didn’t earth evanescence everything eyes face feet fellow felt fire fool forest glance glitter gloom gone grass Gravesend hands head hear heard heart HEART OF DARKNESS helmsman idea immense ivory keep kind knew Kurtz legs lifted light live looked lost lying manager Marlow Martini-Henry murmured mystery never niggers night perhaps pilgrims pilot-house river rivets round savage seemed shadow ships shook shore shout shutter silence slowly snag somber sorrow soul stared station steamboat steamer stood stream strolled suddenly swayed tain talk tell thing thought thunderstruck tion took trade secrets trees unsound method vanished voice wanted wasn’t watched whisper wilderness wonder woods word
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Page 9 - It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me — and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too — and pitiful — not extraordinary in any way — not very clear either. No, not very clear. And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light.
Page 9 - 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.