Classic novella by Joseph Conrad about a man’s journey down the Congo River into the heart of Africa, in a steamboat. He wants to explore the Congo because it’s one of the last blank spaces on the map, and sets off in a French boat. He goes up the river to find a mysterious Mr. Kurtz, who is famous for his ivory exploits. It takes him two months to reach the inner station, where Kurtz is ill and eventually dies on the journey back.
The story is based on Conrad’s own journey to the Congo in the 1890s. At that time, the Congo Free State, controlled by Belgian King Leopold II, was one of the most cruelly exploited states, even by colonial standards. The book is considered racist by some people, since there is wanton disregard for human life / suffering, and Conrad describes the place as a prehistoric jungle with primitive peoples. On the other hand, he realizes the absurdity of Europeans trying to exert control over the wilderness, and realizes that the “savages” were just as human as him.
Although the novella was under 100 pages long, it was quite dense and difficult to read. I found it helpful to listen to an audiobook recording while following along. The entire story was in reported speech as the narrator Marlow tells it in a boat in London, so the nested quotes and sometimes rambling descriptions made it hard to follow what was going on. Still, it had a lot of deep meaning and has been the subject of a lot of literary analysis.