Book description
'The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in
it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after
all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, rage - who can tell? - but truth -
truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder -
the man knows, and can look on without a wink'
Marlow, a seaman, tells of a journey up the Congo. His goal is the
troubled European and ivory trader Kurtz. Worshipped and feared by
invaders as well as natives, Kurtz has become a godlike figure, his
presence pervading the jungle like a thick, obscuring mist. As his
boat labours further upstream, closer and closer to Kurtz's
extraordinary and terrible domain, so Marlow finds his faith in
himself and civilization crumbling. Conrad's Heart of Darkness
has been considered the most important indictment of the evils of
imperialism written to date.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under
Tsarist autocracy. In 1874 he travelled to Marseilles, where he served
in French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an
apprentice. In 1886 he obtained British nationality, before leaving
the sea eight years later to devote himself to writing. He published
his first novel, Almayer's Folly, in 1895, and produced within
fifteen years such astounding works as Youth, Lord Jim, Typhoon,
Nostromo, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes and
Victory. He continued to write until his death in 1924.
Lord Jim, Nostromo and The Secret Agent are
also published in the Penguin English Library.
