Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, originally appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story he tells is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in Kurtz, an ivory procurement agent employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in 'one of the darkest places on earth. Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.