While transporting ivory along the Congo River, Charles Marlow hears whispers about the enigmatic Mr. Kurtz, who has apparently become ill while stationed upriver. Arriving at the Inner Station, Marlow confronts the nature of Kurtz’s mysterious illness, his ties to the local native tribes, and his slow decline into madness.

Set against the backdrop of Africa at the height of British colonization, Conrad’s masterful novella juxtaposes images of savagery with those of supposed civility, and explores the depths of the inevitable racial tensions that result from colonization. Heart of Darkness has been adapted many times for television and film, the most famous being Francis Ford Coppolla’s 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, which successfully transposed the themes and characters from Heart of Darkness into a modern context set during the Vietnam War.

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