It provided the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Originally issued as a three-part serial story in Blackwood's Magazine to celebrate the 1000th edition of the magazine, Heart of Darkness has been widely republished and translated in many languages. Conrad draws parallels between London ('the greatest town on earth') and Africa as places of darkness. The novella's setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his fascination for the prolific ivory trader Kurtz.

Marlow is given a text by Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has 'gone native' and is the object of Marlow's expedition.Ĭentral to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between 'civilised people' and 'savages.' Heart of Darkness implicitly comments on imperialism and racism. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and economically important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. Heart of Darkness was first published as a three-part serial story in Blackwood's Magazine.

Heart of darkness the horror