This line is often said to refer to the atrocities Conrad himself witnessed in Congo as it suffered under the colonial administration of the Belgians. When Marlow finds him on his deathbed, he utters the famous and enigmatic last words: 'The horror! The horror!' Kurtz, however, has paid a terrible price for his mastery. What he finds, after a gruelling journey to the interior, is a fellow European, who may or may not have gone mad, and who is worshipped as a god by the natives of the primitive interior. Once in the dark continent, Marlow is sent upriver to make contact with Kurtz, who is said to be very ill, and also to safeguard the security of the Inner Station. There, working for the shadowy, but all-powerful 'Company', Marlow hears of Mr Kurtz, who is described as a first-class Company servant. With brilliant economy, Conrad transports him to Congo on a quest that the writer himself undertook as a young man. Our encounter with Marlow's life-changing journey begins on the Thames in London, the great imperial capital, with his recollection of 'the uttermost ends of the Earth'. This is partly because the story it tells has the visceral simplicity of great myth, and also because the book takes its narrator (Charles Marlow), and the reader, on a journey into the heart of Africa. S o far, on this list, with the possible exception of Alice in Wonderland (No 18 in this series), Heart of Darkness is probably the title that has aroused, and continues to arouse, most literary critical debate, not to say polemic.

Heart of darkness by joseph conrad