Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the so-called "heart of Africa". Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between what Conrad calls "the greatest town on earth", London, and Africa as places of darkness.
Heart of Darkness
The volume consisted of "Youth: a Narrative", "Heart of Darkness" and "The End of the Tether" in that order. In 1917, for future editions of the book, Conrad wrote an "" where he, after denying any "unity of artistic purpose" underlying the collection, discusses each of the three stories and makes light commentary on the character Marlow—the narrator of the tales within the first two stories. He also mentions how "Youth" marks the first appearance of Marlow.