Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a short novel written as a framed narrative about Charles Marlows life as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is a mighty big river that you could see on the map resembling an immense snake uncoiled with its head in the sea its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land. In the course of his travel in central Africa Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz.The haunting story is a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism. Originally published as a three-part serial in Blackwood''s Magazine the 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad has been translated into many languages and was the basis for Francis Ford Coppola''s acclaimed 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.