| Heart of Darkness Contributor(s): Conrad, Joseph (Author) |
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ISBN: 1936690829 ISBN-13: 9781936690824 Publisher: Ancient Wisdom Publications OUR PRICE: $18.95 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2012 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Historical - General - Fiction | Classics |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Lexile Measure: 910 |
| Physical Information: 0.44" H x 6" W x 9" (0.76 lbs) 116 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - African |
| Accelerated Reader Info |
| Quiz #: 8659 Reading Level: 9.0 Interest Level: Upper Grades Point Value: 10.0 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon. The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. In the story, Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts his Congolese adventure to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary from dusk through to late night. The passage of time and the darkening sky during Marlow's narrative parallels the atmosphere of the events he narrates. |