Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer: Enriched Classics

Introduction

Heart of Darkness:
An Anticolonialist Masterpiece

Heart of Darkness (1902) has been lauded as the greatest short novel ever written, and rightly so. In fewer than one hundred pages, Joseph Conrad manages to deliver a compelling tale of adventure, a shocking exploration of the workings of the human mind, and a blistering indictment of European exploitation of African people and resources -- all in language so carefully, evocatively crafted that readers can almost feel that they are in the middle of the African jungle.

The backdrop of Heart of Darkness is one of the most outrageous humanitarian and environmental crimes in modern history: the late nineteenth-century plunder of the Congo by Leopold II of Belgium. Prompted by greed and jealousy of the colonial might of other European nations, Leopold sought power and wealth by taking personal possession of the Congo, enslaving the people and ravaging land for its natural resources, including ivory and rubber. Several million natives of the Congo died during the period between 1885 and 1908, prompting an international outcry, even from other imperialistic nations.

But Heart of Darkness is not a blatant political protest novel or polemic. It is a subtle, painstakingly constructed literary work presented as a story told by a sailor named Marlow, who recounts for his friends what happened to him while he worked in the Congo as riverboat captain for a Belgian ivory trading company. Marlow tells his listeners of his quest to find and rescue a mysterious figure named Kurtz, chief of the company's Inner Station, about whom troubling rumors were circulating. Marlow's journey toward Kurtz is a journey into the depths of the human psyche. What he finds at the end of his journey -- and what he learns about himself and his "civilization" -- shake him to his very core.

Truly great books inspire heated debate, and Heart of Darkness is no exception. In recent decades, critics have raised the question of whether Conrad's "use" of African characters and settings -- even in the cause of decrying European colonialism -- was racist. Certainly, strong arguments have been made on both sides of the issue. Readers must decide the issue for themselves, taking pains to be as careful and subtle in reading Heart of Darkness as Conrad was in writing it.

The Life and Work of Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was born Jýzef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Berdichev, a city in what was then Poland, on December 3, 1857, the eighty-fifth year of oppression by the Russians. His father, Apollo, came from a noble family that had lost its land during the rebellion against Russian occupation in 1830. His mother, Ewa, was also descended from a wealthy family, yet Joseph's childhood was not financially secure or peaceful. His father, a poet and translator of French and English literature, continued in his family's devotion to the cause of Poland's independence from Russia. Before another uprising of the Poles was discovered and stopped in 1863, Joseph's father was arrested as a revolutionist and sent to prison. Both Apollo and Ewa were convicted and then deported to Vologda in northern Russia. Joseph went with them.