num_pages: 166
description: A masterpiece of twentieth-century writing, Heart of Darkness (1902) exposes the tenuous fabric that holds "civilization" together and the brutal horror at the center of European colonialism. Conrad's crowning achievement recounts Marlow's physical and psychological journey deep into the heart of the Belgian Congo in search of the mysterious trader Kurtz. Joyce Carol Oates on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "Heart of Darkness has had an influence that goes beyond the specifically literary. This parable of a man's 'heart of darkness' dramatized in the alleged 'Dark Continent' of Africa transcended its late Victorian era to acquire the stature of one of the great, if troubling, visionary works of western civilization."
language: English
title: Heart of Darkness
titlecomplete: Heart of Darkness
characters: Kurtz, Charles Marlow
genres: Classics, Adventure, Novels, Read For School, High School, Africa, School, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 497485
places: Brussels, Congo Free State, Belgium, Africa, Belgian Congo
publisher: Penguin Classics