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Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary Reader’s Guide

By Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary Reader’s Guide

By Joseph Conrad

Category: Classic Fiction | Historical Fiction

READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

INTRODUCTION
Heart of Darkness is the thrilling tale of Marlow, a seaman and wanderer recounting his physical and psychological journey in search of the infamous ivory trader Kurtz. Traveling upriver into the heart of the African continent, he gradually becomes obsessed by this enigmatic, wraith-like figure. Marlow’s discovery of how Kurtz has gained his position of power over the local people involves him in a radical questioning, not only of his own nature and values, but of those that underpin Western civilization itself. This edition also includes Conrad’s Congo Diary, a glossary, and an introduction discussing the author’s experiences of Africa, critical responses, and the novel’s symbolic complexities.
 For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
ABOUT JOSEPH CONRAD
Joseph Conrad (originally Józef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under Tsarist autocracy. His parents, ardent Polish patriots, died when he was a child, following their exile for anti-Russian activities, and he came under the protection of his tradition-conscious uncle, Thaddeus Bobrowski, who watched over him for the next twenty-five years. In 1874 Bobrowski conceded to his nephew’s passionate desire to go to sea, and Conrad travelled to Marseilles, where he served in French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an apprentice. In 1886 he obtained British nationality and his Master’s certificate in the British Merchant Service. Eight years later he left the sea to devote himself to writing, publishing his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, in 1895. The following year he married Jessie George and eventually settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such modern classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924. Today Conrad is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction in English—his third language. He once described himself as being concerned ‘with the ideal value of things, events and people’; in the Preface to The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ he defined his task as ‘by the power of the written word … before all, to make you see’.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Heart of Darkness

  • What do we know about Marlow before he begins to tell the story of his voyage to find Kurtz? Marlow initially justifies British conquests by asserting they are motivated by “an unselfish belief in the idea — something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to.” Are we given any reason to doubt this conviction or his veracity as a narrator?
  • The imagery of light and darkness permeates the novel from its opening pages. What is the significance of the darkness over the Thames at the opening and closing of the novel? How does the novel subvert the traditional imagery of the West bringing the light of civilization to darkest Africa? Does darkness in the novel represent evil, emptiness, savagery, or some other force?
  • In what way had “all Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz“? Why did he inspire such faith and adoration in his admirers? Has he — as Marlow suggests — transcended traditional morality?
  • Why does the meeting with Kurtz’s grieving fiancée unnerve Marlow so greatly? Although he deceives her about Kurtz’s final words, why does he feel that “justice” would have been served if he had told her the truth?
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