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Heart of Darkness
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Heart of Darkness (1902) (edit title/settings)

by Joseph Conrad (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899 in serial form in London’s Blackwood’s Magazine. Loosely based on Conrad’s firsthand experience of rescuing a company agent from a remote station in the heart of the Congo, the novel is considered a literary bridge between the... read more

Summary edit see section history

Freed from the constraints of European morality, a man confronts the underlying nature of humanity. Madness ensues.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Charlie Marlow: Protagonist; sails on a steamboat up the Congo River to a remote trading outpost.
  • Kurtz: Legendary chief of the Inner Station; target of Marlow's quest; and the symbol of the darkness residing in every human.
  • General Manager: Self-serving, perservering bureacrat; chief of the Central Station.
  • Helmsman: Naive pilot of the steamboat that takes Marlow to Kurtz.
  • Narrator: The narrator whose identity is never stated is listening to Marlow tell his story of finding Kurtz.
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Mistah Kurtz - he dead.”
  • “I think the knowledge came to him at last — only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude — and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating.”
  • “Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn’t touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror — of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, — he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath — ‘The horror! The horror!’”
  • “The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there — there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were, — No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it — this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity — like yours — the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.”
  • “Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you — you so remote from the night of first ages — could comprehend.And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything — because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage — who can tell? — but truth — truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder — the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff — with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won’t do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags — rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief.”
  • ““I was within a hair’s-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. . . . He had summed up—he had judged. ‘The horror!’ He was a remarkable man.””
    At the beginning of the final section of Part III, Marlow has just recovered from his near-fatal illness.
  • ““The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’””
    This quote, which comes as the steamer begins its voyage back from the Inner Station in the third section of Part III,
  • ““In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not inquire.””
    During the first section of Part II, Marlow watches the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, a band of freelance bandits, reequip and then depart from the Central Station.
  • ““The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.””
    This quote, from the fourth section of Part I, offers Marlow’s initial impression of the Central Station.
  • “Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of inextinguishable regrets”
  • “No, I don't like work. I had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. I don't like work, - no man does - but I like what is in the work, - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”
  • “I take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his soul with the devil: the fool is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil - I don't know which.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.
    Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers
  • They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
    Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers
  • Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets.
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
  • The fascination of the abomination—you know. Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.”
    Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers
  • I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to….”
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • The yarns of seamen have an effective simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But, as has been said, Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that, sometimes, are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • “… No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone….”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.

Table of Contents edit see section history

I
II
III

Glossary edit see section history

Show all 63 glossary entries

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 52 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Song of Solomon, and followed by I, Claudius.

This is book 8 of 29 in Biblioteka XX. stoljeće (Jutarnji list). (edition-based publisher list)

Preceded by In Cold Blood, and followed by On the Edge of Reason.

This is book 780 of 1271 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Wings of the Dove, and followed by The Hound of the Baskervilles.

This is book 23 of 200 in Newman and Jones 200 Best Horror Novels. (community list)

Preceded by The Turn of the Screw, and followed by The Jewel of Seven Stars.

This is book 91 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Faraway Tree Stories, and followed by The Little Prince.

This is book 38 of 96 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Possession, and followed by A Passage to India.

This is book 52 of 113 in Book Smart Reading List. (community list)

Preceded by Things Fall Apart, and followed by One Hundred Years of Solitude.

This is book 158 of 196 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)

Preceded by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and followed by Kim.

This is book 43 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by On the Road, and followed by Yarrow.

This is book 75 of 96 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Charlotte's Web, and followed by Night.

This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)
This is book 28 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Recognitions, and followed by Catch-22.

This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 67 of 93 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Board's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Of Human Bondage, and followed by Main Street.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Joseph Conrad (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Juan Rey (Foreword)
  2. Clara Iturero Herrero (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: W. Blackwood & Sons
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1902
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 110

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Copyright Status: Public Domain
  • Library of Congress: PR6005.O4 H4 2010
  • Dewey: 823.912

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Adults or mature teens

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Things Fall Apart

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • Finding Beauty in a Broken World
  • On Ugliness
  • King Leopold's Ghost

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