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.
Youth (Conrad short story)
"Youth" is an autobiographical short story by Joseph Conrad. Written in 1898, it was first published in "Blackwood's Magazine", and included as the first story in the 1902 volume "Youth, a Narrative, and Two Other Stories". This volume also includes "Heart of Darkness" and "The End of the Tether", stories concerned with the themes of maturity and old age, respectively. "Youth" depicts a young man's first journey to the East. It is narrated by Charles Marlow who is also the narrator of "Lord Jim", "Chance", and "Heart of Darkness". The narrator's introduction suggests this is the first time, chronologically, the character Marlow appears in Conrad's works (the narrator comments that he thinks Marlow spells his name this way).