Heart of Darkness, a short novel written by Joseph Conrad in 1902, exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness encountered by the protagonist Charles Marlow: The darkness of the Congo wilderness, the Europeans treatment of natives, and the darkness within every human.

The novella begins with an unknown narrator on a yacht in Thames with five men who appear to be his colleagues. A man the narrator addresses as Charles Marlow begins to tell a story about a job he took as a ferry boat captain in Africa. The rest of the story is mainly Marlow describing his travel and the darkness of European colonization. The book concludes back on the yacht with a description of how the river seemed to lead into a heart of immense darkness.


Although this book uses very many complex words, it is still a great read. It is quite difficult to understand some parts in the book, but that doesn’t affect the interesting plot of the book. My favorite part of the book was the end where Marlow describes how the river seems to leads into darkness. I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. I really enjoyed Marlow describing the conditions in Africa.

Heart of Darkness shows the darkness inside of us all, while still being an outstanding book. This book has become one of my favorite books, even though it is dark and eerie.