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!"' - Heart of Darkness
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY TIM BUTCHER
The silence of the jungle is broken only by the ominous sound of drumming. Life on the river is brutal and unknown threats lurk in the darkness. Marlow’s mission to captain a steamer upriver into the dense interior leads him into conflict with the others who haunt the forest. But his decision to hunt down the mysterious Mr Kurtz, an ivory trader who is the subject of sinister rumours, leads him into more than just physical peril.
Also inspired by Conrad's life as a merchant sailor, Youth tells of the younger days of the sailor Christopher Marlow aboard the cargo ship Judea. Beset by frequent problems over the long voyage to deliver coal to Thailand, Marlow learns many harsh lessons about the sea and the lives of sailors.
About the Author
Jospeh Conrad (1957-1924) grew up amid political unrest in Russian-occupied Poland. After twenty years at sea with the French and British merchant navies, he settled in England in 1894. Over the next three decades he revolutionized the English novel with works such as Typhoon (1902), Youth (1902), Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), Chance (1913), and Victory (1915). In 1896 he married Jessie George and they later had two sons. Conrad died on August 3, 1924.
Industry Reviews
This small novel is written with intense clarity - sentence for sentence it is still more unsettling than many unpleasant books that have been written since -- Anne Enright
Conrad's narrative arsenal is awesome... Conrad deals in profundities if he deals in anything, but it is just his ability to clip his own wings in midflight, to puncture his ponderously magnificent dirigibles, that make him such an impressive literary performer * Sunday Times *
Still the debate rages: is Conrad's novella an incisive critique of colonialism, or does it reinforce the very racist values it claims to unmask? Either way, his shrouded account of Marlow's journey into the "god-forsaken wilderness" of the Congo demands to be read. At its core lies the enigmatic, awesome Kurtz, and civilisation itself. "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth" * Guardian *
Demands to be read * Guardian *
Conrad broadened the descriptive range of the English language (his glowing and luxuriant delight in words, the haunting decor of the tropics, all that maritime terminology) more than any of his contemporaries * Independent *
