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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 Fourth Edition is again based on Robert Kimbrough's meticulously re-edited text. Missing words have been restored and the entire novel has been repunctuated in accordance with Conrad's style. The result is the first published version of Heart of Darkness that allows readers to hear Marlow's voice as Conrad heard it when he wrote the story.

"Backgrounds and Contexts" provides readers with a generous collection of maps and photographs that bring the Belgian Congo to life. Textual materials, topically arranged, address nineteenth-century views of imperialism and racism and include autobiographical writings by Conrad on his life in the Congo. New to the Fourth Edition is an excerpt from Adam Hochschild's recent book, King Leopold's Ghost, as well as writings on race by Hegel, Darwin, and Galton.

"Criticism" includes a wealth of new materials, including nine contemporary reviews and assessments of Conrad and Heart of Darkness and twelve recent essays by Chinua Achebe, Peter Brooks, Daphne Erdinast-Vulcan, Edward Said, and Paul B. Armstrong, among others. Also new to this edition is a section of writings on the connections between Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now by Louis K. Greiff, Margot Norris, and Lynda J. Dryden.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

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Margin notes of this book

• high school reading listEnglish小説/NovelAfricaCongoimperialismjunglemoralitytruth and liesEmpire
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