Heart of Darkness (version 2)

Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924)

Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon. The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. In the story, Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 01 - Chapter 1 - Part 1 Bob Neufeld
00:52:17
Play 02 02 - Chapter 1 - Part 2 Bob Neufeld
00:48:58
Play 03 03 - Chapter 2 - Part 1 Bob Neufeld
00:47:14
Play 04 04 - Chapter 2 - Part 2 Bob Neufeld
00:40:28
Play 05 05 - Chapter 3 - Part 1 Bob Neufeld
00:46:55
Play 06 06 - Chapter 3 - Part 2 Bob Neufeld
00:42:53