Heart of Darkness (Warbler Classics) by Joseph Conrad
The Heart of Darkness is a powerful examination of the savage nature of western imperialism in the late 1890s. With stunning relevance to the politics and tribulations of today's society, Joseph Conrad's celebrated novel is just as important today as when it was initially published.
The story follows a young man named Charles Marlow. Soon after Marlow joins the Company as captain of a riverboat for a Belgian group organized to trade with the Congo, he uncovers is a fate worse than any life he could have imagined in London. Throughout the journey, Captain Marlow cannot turn away from the stark injustices and atrocious crimes being committed by the company he works for. Reflecting many of the experiences Conrad himself endured, The Heart of Darkness spares no mercy when retelling the many atrocities committed by imperial commanders; because of this, the story has long been considered required reading for all those seeking to better understand the true nature of colonialism. Told from the gaze of an employee privy to the conquest of the colonialist venture, Marlow's experiences are considered exemplary of the brutal nature of human exploitation.
Joseph Conrad, christened Josef Teodor Konrad, Nalecz Korzeniowski, was born on December 3, 1857, in a part of Russia that had once belonged to Poland. His parents were members of the landed gentry, but as ardent Polish patriots, the suffered considerably for their political views. Orphaned at eleven, Conrad attended school for a few years in Cracow, He soon concluded, however, that there was no future for a Pole in occupied Poland, and at sixteen he left his ancestral home forever. The sea was Conrad's love and career for the next twenty years. In the French merchant marine, he sailed to the West. Indies, smuggled guns to Spanish rebels, ran into debt, and bungled a suicide attempt Then in the British merchant navy, he rose to first mate and finally to captain, sailing to Australia and Borneo and surviving at least one shipwreck. In 1890 he contracted to become captain of a Congo River steamer, but the six months he spent in Africa led only to disillusionment and ill health; this episode would become the basis for Conrad's masterpiece, Heart of Darkness. Reluctantly leaving the merchant service, he settled in England and completed his first novel, Almayer's Folly, already begun at sea. Hi subsequent works, many of which drew upon his sea experiences, include The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), Lord Jim (1900), Heart of Darkness (1902), Youth (1902) Typhoon (1903), Nastromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), The Secret Sharer (1910), Under the Western Eyes (1911), and Chance (1913). The man who was twenty-one years old before he spoke a word of English is now regarded as one of the superb English stylists of all time. Conrad died almost literally on his desk in 1924, at the age of sixty-six.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781734452549 |
| ISBN 10 | 1734452544 |
| Title | Heart of Darkness (Warbler Classics) |
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Warbler Classics |
| Year published | 2020-01-11 |
| Number of pages | 128 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |