Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the heart of Africa by the storys narrator Marlow. Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames London England. This setting provides the frame for Marlows story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz which enables Conrad to create a parallel between London and Africa as places of darkness. Central to Conrads work is the idea that there is little difference between so-called civilised people and those described as savages; Heart of Darkness raises questions about imperialism and racism. Originally published as a three-part serial story in Blackwoods Magazine Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998 the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness as the sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century.