Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Joseph Conrad. The sailor Marlow tells of his journey up the Congo River to find Kurtz, an ivory agent who has become a tyrant. Based on Conrad's own experience of 1890, it is one of the most discussed works of modern fiction.
The story
On a yacht moored on the Thames at dusk, Marlow tells his companions how, as a young man, he took command of a river steamer for a Belgian trading company in Africa. He sees the brutality of the company's stations, the chained workers and the waste.
Everyone speaks of Kurtz, the company's most successful agent, deep in the interior. When Marlow finally reaches him, he finds a sick man who has made himself a god among the people of the region; Kurtz dies on the journey downstream.
From experience to fiction
In 1890 Conrad sailed up the Congo to Stanley Falls for the Société Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo. He fell ill with fever and dysentery and returned to Europe deeply shaken.
He wrote the story in 1898–1899. It first appeared in three instalments in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899, then in the volume Youth: A Narrative, and Two Other Stories in 1902.
Readings
The novella was long read as a powerful indictment of the exploitation of the Congo Free State under Leopold II. In 1975 the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe criticised it for depicting Africans as a mere backdrop without voices.
It inspired, among many works, Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979), which moves the story to the Vietnam War.
Anecdotes
A story within a story
Heart of Darkness is told almost entirely by Marlow, but within the words of an anonymous narrator sitting on the deck of the yacht. Marlow also tells the stories of Youth and Lord Jim.
Conrad's Congo diary
Conrad kept a short diary during the first part of his journey in 1890. Rediscovered and published after his death, it records the corpses, chains and forced labour he later described in the novella.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Heart of Darkness set?
In the Congo Free State, though the country and the river are never named in the story, and on the River Thames, where Marlow tells his tale.
Who is Kurtz?
The chief of an ivory station deep in the interior, a gifted and ambitious man who has made himself a ruler worshipped by the local people.
When was Heart of Darkness published?
As a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899, then in a book in 1902.