Contents
Book Choice for March 2009
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Synopsis
Heart of Darkness has been considered for most of this century as a literary
classic, and also as a powerful indictment of the evils of imperialism. It
reflects the savage repressions carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one
of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time. Conrad's narrator
encounters at the end of the story a man named Kurtz, dying, insane, and guilty
of unspeakable atrocities.
About the Author
Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under Tsarist
autocracy. In 1874 Conrad 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. Eight years later he left the sea to devote
himself to writing, publishing his first novel, Almayer's Folly, in 1895. The
following year he settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such
modern classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The
Secret Agent and & Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in
1924.
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