Heart of Darkness

Resumen del libro

'The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, rage - who can tell - but truth - truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder - the man knows, and can look on without a wink'.

Marlow, a seaman, tells of a journey up the Congo. His goal is the troubled European and ivory trader Kurtz. Worshipped and feared by invaders as well as natives, Kurtz has become a godlike figure, his presence pervading the jungle like a thick, obscuring mist.

As his boat labours further upstream, closer and closer to Kurtz's extraordinary and terrible domain, so Marlow finds his faith in himself and civilization crumbling. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" has been considered the most important indictment of the evils of imperialism written to date.

Biografía del autor

Nacido como Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski (Berdyczów, entonces Imperio ruso, actual Ucrania, 1857-Bishopsbourne, Inglaterra, 1924), fue un novelista polaco que adoptó el inglés como lengua literaria. Su obra explora la vulnerabilidad y la inestabilidad moral del ser humano cuando es sometido a una situación límite. Considerado como uno de los más grandes novelistas de la literatura inglesa, entre sus títulos destacan 'El corazón de las tienieblas' (1899), 'Lord Jim' (1900), 'El agente secreto' (1907) y 'Bajo la mirada de Occidente' (1911).