Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is perhaps the most influential novel by one of the twentieth century’s most esteemed and influential novelists. Valued for its themes as well as for its innovative literary methods, this book has not only inspired great admiration but has also provoked, more recently, heated controversy. Usually read as an attack on the brutalities of European colonialism, the work is sometimes now read as a colonialist project in its own right. This volume explores numerous dimensions of Conrad’s book, looking at it in various historical, literary, and cultural contexts and examining both its artistry and its themes.