Heart of Darkness"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. |
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absurd all-fours amongst appeared asked bank began bewitched big river burst bush cern chap coast crawled cried dark dead dear boys deck devil earth eyes face feet fellow felt forest glance glitter gloom gone grass Gravesend hands head hear heard heart HEART OF DARKNESS helmsman idea imagine immense ivory keep kind knew Kurtz lence lifted light live looked lost manager Marlow Martini-Henry murmured mystery ness never niggers night perhaps pilgrims profes river rivets round savage seemed seen shadow ships shook shore shouted shutter silence slowly smile snag sombre sorrow soul sound stared station steam whistle steamboat steamer stood stream strolled suddenly swayed talk tell tence tenebrous thing thought thunderstruck tion took trade trees treme turned voice waiting wanted watched Waterville whisper wilderness woods word