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  • This was first assigned to me as summer reading before my senior year in high school. I got enough out my premier pass at it to be able to ace the test, but unaccompanied reading is NOT the way to experience this amazing work by Conrad. My sophomore year at university, we went through this again in ... Continue

    This was first assigned to me as summer reading before my senior year in high school. I got enough out my premier pass at it to be able to ace the test, but unaccompanied reading is NOT the way to experience this amazing work by Conrad. My sophomore year at university, we went through this again in Brit Lit II - the experience was totally different. And I've loved this novel ever since. From the journey through its influence into modern literature (like T.S. Eliot's superb "Hollow Men"), this book is iconic.

    

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• ― guaddess said on May 12, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

The finest of all Conrad's tales, Heart of Darkness is set in an atmosphere of mystery and menace, and tells of Marlow's perilous journey up the Congo River to relieve his employer's agent, the renowned and formidable Mr. Kurtz. What he sees on his journey, and his eventual encounter with
Kurtz, horrify and perplex him, and call into question the very bases of civilization and human nature. Endlessly reinterpreted by critics and adapted for film, radio, and television, the story shows Conrad at his most intense and sophisticated. The other three tales in this volume depict corruption
and obsession, and question racial assumptions. Set in the exotic surroundings of Africa, Malaysia, and the east, they variously appraise the glamour, folly, and rapacity of imperial adventure. This revised edition uses the English first edition texts and has a new chronology and
bibliography.

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Malaysian Bookworms (36)

Historical Fiction Lovers (110)

Margin notes of this book

• middleschoolfictionhighschoolNovels1900-1960british litschoolClassicMy FavoritesAfrica
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