Editing Heart of Darkness

{{Short description|1899 novella by Joseph Conrad}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = Heart of Darkness
| image = Blackwood's Magazine - 1899 cover.jpg
| caption = ''Heart of Darkness'' was first published as a three-part serial story in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]''.
| author = [[Joseph Conrad]]
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| genre = Novella
| publisher = ''Blackwood's Magazine''
| published = 1899 serial; 1902 book
| isbn = <!-- Released before ISBN system implemented -->
| preceded_by = [[The Nigger of the 'Narcissus']] {{no italic|(1897)}}
| followed_by = [[Lord Jim]] {{no italic|(1900)}}
| wikisource = Heart of Darkness
}}

'''''Heart of Darkness'''''  is an 1899 [[novella]] by Polish-British novelist [[Joseph Conrad]] in which the sailor [[Charles Marlow]] tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a [[Belgium|Belgian]] company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of [[Scramble for Africa|European colonial rule in Africa]], whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing, the [[Congo Free State]]—the location of the large and economically important [[Congo River]]—was a private colony of Belgium's [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II]]. Marlow is given an assignment to find [[Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)|Kurtz]], an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition.

Central to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between "civilised people" and "savages". ''Heart of Darkness'' implicitly comments on [[imperialism]] and racism.<ref>''The Norton Anthology'', 7th edition, (2000), p. 1957.</ref> The novella's setting provides the [[frame story|frame]] for Marlow's story of his fascination for the prolific ivory trader Kurtz. Conrad draws parallels between [[London]] ("the greatest town on earth") and Africa as places of darkness.<ref>Achebe, Chinua  (2000). "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness''" in ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', vol. 2 (7th edition), p. 2036.</ref>

Originally issued as a three-part serial story in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' to celebrate the 1000th edition of the magazine,<ref>National Library of Scotland: ''Blackwood's Magazine'' exhibition. In ''Blackwood's'', the story is titled "The Heart of Darkness", but when published as a separate book, "The" was dropped from the title.</ref> ''Heart of Darkness'' has been widely republished and translated in many languages. It provided the inspiration for [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s 1979 film ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''. In 1998, the [[Modern Library]] ranked ''Heart of Darkness'' 67th on their list of the [[Modern Library 100 Best Novels|100 best novels]] in English of the 20th century.<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html 100 Best] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207224252/http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html |date=7 February 2010 }}, Modern Library's website. Retrieved 12 January 2010.</ref>

==Composition and publication==
[[File:Joseph Conrad.PNG|thumb|left|upright|[[Joseph Conrad]] based ''Heart of Darkness'' on his own experiences in the [[Congo Basin|Congo]].]]
In 1890, at the age of 32, Conrad was appointed by a Belgian trading company to serve on one of its [[Steamboat|steamers]]. While sailing up the [[Congo River]] from one station to another, the captain became ill and Conrad assumed command. He guided the ship up the [[tributary]] [[Lualaba River]] to the trading company's innermost station, [[Kindu]], in [[Maniema|Eastern Congo Free State]]; Marlow has similar experiences to the author.<ref name="Bloom">{{harvnb|Bloom|2009|p=15}}</ref>

When Conrad began to write the novella, eight years after returning from Africa, he drew inspiration from his [[travel journal]]s.<ref name="Bloom"/> He described ''Heart of Darkness'' as "a wild story" of a journalist who becomes manager of a station in the (African) interior and makes himself worshipped by a tribe of natives. The tale was first published as a three-part serial, in February, March, and April 1899, in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' (February 1899 was the magazine's 1000th issue: special edition). ''Heart of Darkness'' was later included in the book ''[[s:Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories|Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories]]'', published on 13 November 1902 by [[Blackwood (publishing house)|William Blackwood]].

The volume consisted of ''[[Youth (Conrad short story)|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 "[[s:Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories/Author's Note|Author's Note]]" where he, after denying any "unity of artistic purpose" underlying the collection, discusses each of the three stories and makes light commentary on Marlow, the narrator of the tales within the first two stories. He said Marlow first appeared in ''Youth''.

On 31 May 1902, in a letter to William Blackwood, Conrad remarked,

<blockquote>I call your own kind self to witness ... the last pages of ''Heart of Darkness'' where the interview of the man and the girl locks in—as it were—the whole 30{{hair space}}000 words of narrative description into one suggestive view of a whole phase of life and makes of that story something quite on another plane than an anecdote of a man who went mad in the Centre of Africa.{{sfn|Karl|Davies|1986|p=417}}</blockquote>

There have been many proposed sources for the character of the antagonist, Kurtz. [[Georges-Antoine Klein]], an agent who became ill and died aboard Conrad's steamer, is proposed by literary critics as a basis for Kurtz.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Karl |first1=F. R. |title=Introduction to the dance macabre: Conrad's Heart of Darkness |journal=Modern Fiction Studies |date=1968 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=143–156}}</ref> The principal figures involved in the disastrous "rear column" of the [[Emin Pasha Relief Expedition]] have also been identified as likely sources, including column leader [[Edmund Musgrave Barttelot]],{{sfn|Bloom|2009|p=16}} his Scottish colleague, [[James Sligo Jameson]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=J. A. |title=James S. Jameson and ''Heart of Darkness'' |journal=[[Notes and Queries]] |date=1993 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=64–66}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fletcher |first1=Chris |title=Kurtz, Marlow, Jameson, and the Rearguard: A Few Further Observations |journal=The Conradian |date=2001 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=60–64 |jstor=20874186 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20874186 |issn=0951-2314}}</ref> slave trader [[Tippu Tip]] and the expedition leader, Welsh explorer [[Henry Morton Stanley]].{{sfn|Bloom|2009|p=16}}<ref name = "ho">{{cite book |last=Hochschild |first=Adam |title=King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-395-75924-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingleopoldsghos00hoch_1/page/98 98], 145 |url=https://archive.org/details/kingleopoldsghos00hoch_1 |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]] }}</ref> Conrad's biographer [[Norman Sherry]] judged that Arthur Hodister (1847–1892), a Belgian solitary but successful trader, who spoke three Congolese languages and was venerated by Congolese to the point of deification, served as the main model, while later scholars have refuted this hypothesis.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Conrad's Western World|last=Sherry|first=Norman|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1971|location=Cambridge|pages=95}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Coosemans|first=M.|date=1948|title=Hodister, Arthur|journal=Biographie Coloniale Belge|volume=I|pages=514–518}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness|last=Firchow|first=Peter|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2015|pages=65–68}}</ref> [[Adam Hochschild]], in ''[[King Leopold's Ghost]]'', believes that the Belgian soldier [[Léon Rom]] influenced the character.<ref>Ankomah, Baffour (October 1999). "The Butcher of Congo". ''New African''.</ref> Peter Firchow mentions the possibility that Kurtz is a composite, modelled on various figures present in the Congo Free State at the time as well as on Conrad's imagining of what they might have had in common.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness|last=Firchow|first=Peter|publisher=University of Kentucky Press|year=2015|pages=67–68}}</ref>

A corrective impulse to impose one's rule characterises Kurtz's writings which were discovered by Marlow during his journey, where he rants on behalf of the so-called "International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs" about his supposedly altruistic and sentimental reasons to civilise the "savages"; one document ends with a dark proclamation to "Exterminate all the brutes!".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jallikattu-photographer-ryan-lobo-takes-the-bull-by-the-horns-in-his-series/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126055131/https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzp9ba/jallikattu-photographer-ryan-lobo-takes-the-bull-by-the-horns-in-his-series| archive-date=26 January 2021|title=A Photographer Takes the Bull by the Horns in His Jallikattu Series|first=Sonal|last=Shah|date=26 April 2018 |publisher=Vice.com|access-date=13 September 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The "International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs" is interpreted as a sarcastic reference to one of the participants at the [[Berlin Conference]], the [[International Association of the Congo]] (also called "[[International Association of the Congo|International Congo Society]]").<ref name="HistoricalContext">"Historical Context: ''Heart of Darkness''." EXPLORING Novels, Online Edition. Gale, 2003. [http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/DC Discovering Collection]. {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stengers|first=Jean|title=Sur l'aventure congolaise de Joseph Conrad.|journal=In Quaghebeur, M. And van Balberghe, E. (Eds.), Papier Blanc, Encre Noire: Cent Ans de Culture Francophone en Afrique Centrale (Zaïre, Rwanda et Burundi). 2 Vols. Pp. 15-34. Brussels: Labor.|volume=1}}</ref> The predecessor to this organisation was the "[[International African Association|International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa]]".

==Synopsis==
The novella opens on "the sea-reach of the [[River Thames|Thames]]" where [[Charles Marlow]] tells his friends that "when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago" they would have sensed "the savagery, the utter savagery" surrounding them. Marlow then relates how he became captain of a river steamboat for an [[Ivory trade|ivory trading]] company. He tells of his fascination as a child for "the blank spaces" on maps, particularly in Africa. The image of a river on the map particularly drew his attention.

In a flashback, Marlow makes his way to Africa by taking passage on a steamer. He travels {{convert|30|mi|-1|abbr=on}} up the river to where his company's station is. Work on a railway is taking place. Marlow explores a narrow ravine, and is horrified to find himself in a place full of critically ill Africans who worked on the railroad and are now dying. Marlow must wait for ten days in the company's devastated Outer Station. Marlow meets the company's chief accountant, who tells him of a [[Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)|Mr. Kurtz]], who is in charge of a very important trading post, and is described as a respected first-class agent. The accountant predicts that Kurtz will go far.

[[File:VingtAnnees 289.jpg|thumb|Belgian river station on the Congo River, 1889]]

Marlow departs with 60 men to travel to the Central Station, where the steamboat that he will command is based. At the station, he learns that his steamboat has been wrecked in an accident. The general manager informs Marlow that he could not wait for Marlow to arrive, and tells him of a rumour that Kurtz is ill. Marlow fishes his boat out of the river and spends months repairing it. Delayed by the lack of tools and replacement parts, Marlow is frustrated by the time it takes to perform the repairs. He learns that Kurtz is resented, not admired, by the manager. Once underway, the journey to Kurtz's station takes two months.

[[File:VingtAnnees 286.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The ''Roi des Belges'' ("King of the Belgians"—French), the Belgian riverboat Conrad commanded on the upper Congo, 1889]]
The journey pauses for the night about {{convert|8|mi|km}} below the Inner Station. In the morning the boat is enveloped by a thick fog. The steamboat is later attacked by a barrage of arrows, and the helmsman is killed. Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly, frightening the attackers away.

After landing at Kurtz's station, a man boards the steamboat: a Russian wanderer who strayed into Kurtz's camp. Marlow learns that the natives worship Kurtz and that he has been very ill. The Russian tells of how Kurtz opened his mind and admires Kurtz even for his power and his willingness to use it. Marlow suspects that Kurtz has gone mad.

Marlow observes the station and sees a row of posts topped with the severed heads of natives. Around the corner of the house, Kurtz appears with supporters who carry him as a ghost-like figure on a stretcher. The area fills with natives ready for battle, but Kurtz shouts something and they retreat. His entourage carries Kurtz to the steamer and lays him in a cabin. The manager tells Marlow that Kurtz has harmed the company's business in the region because his methods are "unsound". The Russian reveals that Kurtz believes the company wants to kill him, and Marlow confirms that hangings were discussed.

[[File:Arthur Hodister (1847-1892).jpg|thumb|Arthur Hodister (1847–1892), who Conrad's biographer Norman Sherry has argued served as one of the sources of inspiration for Kurtz]]

After midnight, Kurtz returns to shore. Marlow finds Kurtz crawling back to the station house. Marlow threatens to harm Kurtz if he raises an alarm, but Kurtz only laments that he did not accomplish more. The next day they prepare to journey back down the river.

Kurtz's health worsens during the trip. The steamboat breaks down, and while stopped for repairs, Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers, including his commissioned report and a photograph, telling him to keep them from the manager. When Marlow next speaks with him, Kurtz is near death; Marlow hears him weakly whisper, "The horror! The horror!" A short while later, the manager's boy announces to the crew that Kurtz has died (the famous line "Mistah Kurtz—he dead" would become the [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s poem "[[The Hollow Men]]"). The next day Marlow pays little attention to Kurtz's pilgrims as they bury "something" in a muddy hole.

Returning to Europe, Marlow is embittered and contemptuous of the "civilised" world. Several callers come to retrieve the papers Kurtz entrusted to him, but Marlow withholds them or offers papers he knows they have no interest in. He gives Kurtz's report to a journalist, for publication if he sees fit. Marlow is left with some personal letters and a photograph of Kurtz's fiancée. When Marlow visits her, she is deep in mourning although it has been more than a year since Kurtz's death. She presses Marlow for information, asking him to repeat Kurtz's final words. Marlow tells her that Kurtz's final word was her name.

==Critical reception==

The novella was not a big success during Conrad's life.<ref name="Moore">{{harvnb|Moore|2004|p=4}}</ref> When it was published as a single volume in 1902 with two novellas, "Youth" and "The End of the Tether", it received the least commentary from critics.<ref name="Moore"/> [[F. R. Leavis]] referred to ''Heart of Darkness'' as a "minor work" and criticised its "adjectival insistence upon inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery".<ref name="Moore5">{{harvnb|Moore|2004|p=5}}</ref> Conrad did not consider it to be particularly notable;<ref name="Moore"/> but by the 1960s it was a standard assignment in many college and high school English courses.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_13.02.01_u| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_13.02.01_u| archive-date=21 November 2021|title=13.02.01: Moving Beyond "Huh?": Ambiguity in Heart of Darkness}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] wrote that ''Heart of Darkness'' had been analysed more than any other work of literature that is studied in universities and colleges, which he attributed to Conrad's "unique propensity for ambiguity".<ref name="Bloom2">{{harvnb|Bloom|2009|p=17}}</ref> In ''[[King Leopold's Ghost]]'' (1998), [[Adam Hochschild]] wrote that literary scholars have made too much of the psychological aspects of ''Heart of Darkness'', while paying scant attention to Conrad's accurate recounting of the horror arising from the methods and effects of colonialism in the Congo Free State. "''Heart of Darkness'' is experience ... pushed a little (and only very little) beyond the actual facts of the case".{{sfn|Hochschild|1999|p=143}} Other critiques include Hugh Curtler's ''Achebe on Conrad: Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness'' (1997).<ref>{{cite journal|author=Curtler, Hugh|title=Achebe on Conrad: Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness|journal=Conradiana|volume=29|issue= 1|date=March 1997|pages=30–40}}</ref> The French philosopher [[Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe]] called ''Heart of Darkness'' "one of the greatest texts of Western literature" and used Conrad's tale for a reflection on "The Horror of the West".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/conrads-heart-of-darkness-and-contemporary-thought-9781441101006/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/conrads-heart-of-darkness-and-contemporary-thought-9781441101006/| archive-date=21 November 2021|title=The Horror of the West|last=Lacoue-Labarthe|first=Philippe|publisher=Bloomsbury}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[File:Chinua Achebe - Buffalo 25Sep2008 crop.jpg|thumb|Chinua Achebe's 1975 lecture on the book sparked decades of debate.]]
''Heart of Darkness'' is criticised in [[Postcolonialism|postcolonial]] studies, particularly by Nigerian novelist [[Chinua Achebe]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = http://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/book-reviews-tuesday-tome-heart-of-darkness-joseph-conrad/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/book-reviews-tuesday-tome-heart-of-darkness-joseph-conrad/| archive-date=21 November 2021|title = A Controversy Worth Teaching: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the Ethics of Stature|date = 6 October 2015|access-date = 19 February 2016|website = The Gemsbok|last = Podgorski|first = Daniel|series = Your Tuesday Tome}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Chinua Achebe Biography|url=http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665#synopsis|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141025144404/http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665#synopsis|archive-date=25 October 2014|publisher=Biography.com|access-date=30 November 2014}}</ref> In his 1975 public lecture "[[An Image of Africa|An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'']]", Achebe described Conrad's novella as "an offensive and deplorable book" that [[Dehumanization|dehumanised]] Africans.<ref name="Watts2">{{cite journal|last=Watts|first=Cedric|title='A Bloody Racist': About Achebe's View of Conrad|journal=The Yearbook of English Studies|year=1983|doi=10.2307/3508121|volume=13|pages=196–209|jstor=3508121}}</ref> Achebe argued that Conrad, "blinkered ... with [[xenophobia]]", incorrectly depicted Africa as the antithesis of Europe and civilisation, ignoring the artistic accomplishments of the [[Fang people]] who lived in the Congo River basin at the time of the book's publication. He argued that the book promoted and continues to promote a prejudiced image of Africa that "depersonalises a portion of the human race" and concluded that it should not be considered a great work of art.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=Achebe>{{cite journal|last=Achebe|first=Chinua|title=An Image of Africa|journal=Research in African Literatures|volume=9|issue=1|pages=1–15|year=1978|jstor=3818468}}</ref>

Achebe's critics argue that he fails to distinguish Marlow's view from Conrad's, which results in very clumsy interpretations of the novella.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lackey|first=Michael|date=Winter 2005|title=The Moral Conditions for Genocide in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"|journal=College Literature|volume=32|issue=1|pages=20–41|jstor=25115244|doi=10.1353/lit.2005.0010|s2cid=170188739 }}</ref> In their view, Conrad portrays Africans sympathetically and their plight tragically, and refers sarcastically to, and condemns outright, the supposedly noble aims of European colonists, thereby demonstrating his scepticism about the moral superiority of European men.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Watts|first=Cedric|year=1983|title='A Bloody Racist': About Achebe's View of Conrad|journal=The Yearbook of English Studies|volume=13|pages=196–209|jstor=3508121|doi=10.2307/3508121}}</ref> Ending a passage that describes the condition of chained, emaciated slaves, Marlow remarks: "After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings." Some observers assert that Conrad, whose native country had been conquered by imperial powers, empathised by default with other subjugated peoples.<ref>{{cite book|last=Conrad|first=Joseph|title=Heart of Darkness, ''Book I''|url=https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/99/heart-of-darkness/1688/part-1/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/99/heart-of-darkness/1688/part-1/| archive-date=21 November 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[Jeffrey Meyers]] notes that Conrad, like his acquaintance [[Roger Casement]], "was one of the first men to question the Western notion of progress, a dominant idea in Europe from the [[Renaissance]] to the [[World War I|Great War]], to attack the hypocritical justification of [[colonialism]] and to reveal... the savage degradation of the white man in Africa."<ref name="Jeffrey Meyers">Jeffrey Meyers, ''Joseph Conrad: A Biography'', 1991.</ref>{{rp|100–01}} Likewise, [[E. D. Morel|E.D. Morel]], who led international opposition to [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II]]'s rule in the Congo, saw Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' as a condemnation of colonial brutality and referred to the novella as "the most powerful thing written on the subject."<ref>{{Cite book|title = History of the Congo Reform Movement|last = Morel|first = E.D.|publisher = Oxford UP|year = 1968|location = Ed. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. London|pages = 205, n}}</ref>

[[File:1922_Edmund_Dene_Morel.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Author and [[Abolitionism|anti-slavery]] pacifist E. D. Morel (1873–1924) considered the novella was "the most powerful thing written on the subject."]]
Conrad scholar [[Peter Edgerly Firchow|Peter Firchow]] writes that "nowhere in the novel does Conrad or any of his narrators, personified or otherwise, claim superiority on the part of Europeans on the grounds of alleged genetic or biological difference". If Conrad or his novel is racist, it is only in a weak sense, since ''Heart of Darkness'' acknowledges racial distinctions "but does not suggest an essential superiority" of any group.<ref>{{cite book|last=Firchow|first=Peter|title=Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness |year=2000|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-2128-4|pages=10–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nPfqhqv5k2oC}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Lackey|first=Michael|title= Conrad Scholarship Under New-Millennium Western Eyes|journal=Journal of Modern Literature|date=Summer 2003|volume=26|issue=3/4|page=144|doi=10.1353/jml.2004.0030|s2cid=162347476|url=https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/eng_facpubs/22| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/eng_facpubs/22| archive-date=21 November 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Achebe's reading of ''Heart of Darkness'' can be (and has been) challenged by a reading of Conrad's other African story, "[[An Outpost of Progress]]", which has an omniscient narrator, rather than the embodied narrator, Marlow.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} [[Masood Ashraf Raja]] has suggested that Conrad's positive representation of [[Muslims]] in his [[Malay Archipelago|Malay]] novels complicates these charges of racism.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Raja|first=Masood|year=2007|title=Joseph Conrad: Question of Racism and the Representation of Muslims in his Malayan Works|journal=Postcolonial Text|volume=3|issue=4|page=13|url=http://postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/view/699/495| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/view/699/495| archive-date=21 November 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 2003, Motswana scholar Peter Mwikisa concluded the book was "the great lost opportunity to depict dialogue between Africa and Europe".<ref>Mwikisa, Peter. "Conrad's Image of Africa: Recovering African Voices in ''Heart of Darkness''. ''Mots Pluriels'' 13 (April 2000): 20–28.</ref> Zimbabwean scholar Rino Zhuwarara, however, broadly agreed with Achebe, though considered it important to be "sensitised to how peoples of other nations perceive Africa".<ref name="Moore6">{{harvnb|Moore|2004|p=6}}</ref> The novelist [[Caryl Phillips]] stated in 2003 that: "Achebe is right; to the African reader the price of Conrad's eloquent denunciation of colonisation is the recycling of racist notions of the 'dark' continent and her people. Those of us who are not from Africa may be prepared to pay this price, but this price is far too high for Achebe".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Phillips|first1=Caryl|title=Out of Africa|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/22/classics.chinuaachebe| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/22/classics.chinuaachebe| archive-date=21 November 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=30 November 2014|date=22 February 2003}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In his 1983 criticism, the British academic Cedric Watts criticises the insinuation in Achebe's critique—the premise that only black people may accurately analyse and assess the novella, as well as mentioning that Achebe's critique falls into self-contradictory arguments regarding Conrad's writing style, both praising and denouncing it at times.<ref name=Watts2/>   Stan Galloway writes, in a comparison of ''Heart of Darkness'' with '' Jungle Tales of Tarzan'', "The inhabitants [of both works], whether antagonists or compatriots, were clearly imaginary and meant to represent a particular fictive cipher and not a particular African people".<ref>Galloway, Stan. ''The Teenage Tarzan: A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs'', ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. p. 112.</ref> More recent critics like Nidesh Lawtoo have stressed that the "continuities" between Conrad and Achebe are profound and that a form of "postcolonial mimesis" ties the two authors via productive mirroring inversions.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Nidesh |last=Lawtoo |title=A Picture of Africa: Frenzy, Counternarrative, Mimesis |journal=Modern Fiction Studies |volume=59 |issue=1 |year=2013 |pages=26–52 |doi=10.1353/mfs.2013.0000 |s2cid=161325915 |url=https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/592584/1/A+Picture+of+Africa.MFS.pdf }}</ref>

==Adaptations and influences==

===Radio and stage===
[[Orson Welles]] adapted and starred in ''Heart of Darkness'' in a [[CBS Radio]] broadcast on 6 November 1938 as part of his series, ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]''. In 1939, Welles adapted the story for his first film for [[RKO Pictures]],<ref name=var/> writing a screenplay with [[John Houseman]]. The story was adapted to focus on the rise of a [[fascism|fascist]] dictator.<ref name=var/> Welles intended to play Marlow and Kurtz<ref name=var>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=13 June 1979|page=24|title=Orson Welles Prior Interest In Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'|last=Hitchens|first=Gordon}}</ref> and it was to be entirely filmed as a POV from Marlow's eyes. Welles even filmed a short presentation film illustrating his intent. It is reportedly lost. The film's prologue to be read by Welles said "You aren't going to see this picture - this picture is going to happen to you."<ref name=var/> The project was never realised; one reason given was the loss of European markets after the outbreak of [[World War II]]. Welles still hoped to produce the film when he presented another radio adaptation of the story as his first program as producer-star of the CBS radio series ''[[This Is My Best]]''. Welles scholar [[Bret Wood]] called the broadcast of 13 March 1945, "the closest representation of the film Welles might have made, crippled, of course, by the absence of the story's visual elements (which were so meticulously designed) and the half-hour length of the broadcast."<ref name="Bret Wood">[[Bret Wood|Wood, Bret]], ''Orson Welles: A Bio-Bibliography''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1990 {{ISBN|0-313-26538-0}}</ref>{{Rp|95, 153–156,136–137|date=March 2014}}

In 1991, Australian author/playwright [[Larry Buttrose]] wrote and staged a theatrical adaptation titled ''Kurtz'' with the Crossroads Theatre Company, [[Sydney]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsB/buttrose-larry.html| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsB/buttrose-larry.html| archive-date=21 November 2021|title=Larry Buttrose|publisher=doollee.com}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The play was announced to be broadcast as a radio play to Australian radio audiences in August 2011 by the [[Vision Australia Radio]] Network,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visionaustralia.org/info.aspx?page=749|title=Vision Australia|publisher=Visionaustralia.org|access-date=17 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801191453/http://www.visionaustralia.org/info.aspx?page=749|archive-date=1 August 2012}}</ref> and also by the RPH – [[Radio Print Handicapped Network]] across Australia. In 2011, composer [[Tarik O'Regan]] and librettist [[Tom Phillips (artist)|Tom Phillips]] adapted an [[Heart of Darkness (opera)|opera of the same name]], which premiered at the [[Linbury Studio Theatre|Linbury Theatre]] of the [[Royal Opera House]] in London.<ref>[http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=17248 Royal Opera House Page for ''Heart of Darkness''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020223221/http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=17248 |date=20 October 2011 }} by [[Tarik O'Regan]] and [[Tom Phillips (artist)|Tom Phillips]]</ref> A suite for orchestra and narrator was subsequently extrapolated from it.<ref name=RPO>{{Citation|title=''Suite from Heart of Darkness'' first London performance|publisher=Cadogan Hall|url=http://www.cadoganhall.com/event/royal-philharmonic-orchestra-130423/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://www.cadoganhall.com/event/royal-philharmonic-orchestra-130423/| archive-date=21 November 2021|access-date=17 June 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 2015, an adaptation of Welles' screenplay by [[Jamie Lloyd (director)|Jamie Lloyd]] and [[Laurence Bowen]] aired on [[BBC Radio 4]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = Orson Welles' Heart of Darkness, Unmade Movies, Drama – BBC Radio 4|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06k9bz9| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06k9bz9| archive-date=21 November 2021|publisher = BBC|access-date = 3 November 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The production starred [[James McAvoy]] as Marlow. Another BBC Radio 4 adaptation, first broadcast in 2021, transposes the action to the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Heart of Darkness, Drama – BBC Radio 4|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rbpg|publisher = BBC|access-date = 8 April 2024}}</ref>

=== Film and television ===
[[File:Boris Karloff Suspicion 1957.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|[[Boris Karloff]] (photo from 1957) played Kurtz in 1958]]

In 1958, the [[CBS]] television anthology ''[[Playhouse 90]]'' ([[Heart of Darkness (Playhouse 90)|S3E7]]) aired a loose 90-minute television play adaptation. This version, written by [[Stewart Stern]], uses the encounter between Marlow ([[Roddy McDowall]]) and Kurtz ([[Boris Karloff]]) as its final act, and adds a backstory in which Marlow had been Kurtz's adopted son. The cast includes [[Inga Swenson]] and [[Eartha Kitt]].<ref>Cast and credits are available at [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0675574/ "The Internet Movie Database"]. Retrieved 2 December 2010. A full recording can be viewed onsite by members of the public upon request at [[The Paley Center for Media]] (formerly the Museum of Television & Radio) in New York City and Los Angeles.</ref>

Perhaps the best known adaptation is [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s 1979 film ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', based on the screenplay by [[John Milius]], which moves the story from the Congo to [[Vietnam]] and [[Cambodia]] during the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite news |access-date=29 September 2008|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/03/movies/critic-s-notebook-aching-heart-of-darkness.html| url-status=live | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909011936/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/03/movies/critic-s-notebook-aching-heart-of-darkness.html| archive-date=9 September 2012 |title= Aching Heart of Darkness  |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 August 2001 |author=Scott, A. O. }}{{cbignore}}</ref> In ''Apocalypse Now'', [[Martin Sheen]] stars as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, a [[United States Army|US Army]] Captain assigned to "terminate the command" of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, played by [[Marlon Brando]]. A film documenting the production, titled ''[[Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse]]'', was released in 1991. It chronicles a series of difficulties and challenges that director Coppola encountered during the making of the film, several of which mirror some of the novella's themes.

[[Heart of Darkness (1993 film)|A 1993 television film]] adaptation was written by [[Benedict Fitzgerald]] and directed by [[Nicolas Roeg]]. The film, which was aired by [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]], starred [[Tim Roth]] as Marlow, [[John Malkovich]] as Kurtz, [[Isaach de Bankolé]] as Mfumu, and [[James Fox]] as Gosse.<ref>[http://www.ew.com/article/1994/03/11/heart-darkness "Heart of Darkness"], ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'', 11 March 1994, retrieved 4 April 2010. [https://ew.com/article/1994/03/11/heart-darkness/].</ref>
[[James Gray (director)|James Gray]]'s 2019 science fiction film ''[[Ad Astra (film)|Ad Astra]]'' is loosely inspired by the events of the novel. It features [[Brad Pitt]] as an astronaut travelling to the edge of the [[Solar System]] to confront and potentially kill his father ([[Tommy Lee Jones]]), who has gone rogue.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Chitwood|first1=Adam|title=James Gray Says His Sci-Fi Movie 'Ad Astra' Starts Filming This Summer with Brad Pitt|url=http://collider.com/james-gray-brad-pitt-ad-astra-filming/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/http://collider.com/james-gray-brad-pitt-ad-astra-filming/| archive-date=21 November 2021|website=[[Collider (website)|Collider]]|publisher=[[Complex (magazine)|Complex Media Inc.]]|accessdate=19 September 2017|date=10 April 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 2020, ''[[African Apocalypse]]'', a documentary film directed and produced by Rob Lemkin and featuring Femi Nylander portrays a journey from [[Oxford]], England to [[Niger]] on the trail of a colonial killer called Captain [[Paul Voulet]]. Voulet's descent into barbarity mirrors that of Kurtz in Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness''. Nylander discovers Voulet's massacres happened at exactly the same time that Conrad wrote his book in 1899. It was broadcast by the [[BBC]] in May 2021 as an episode of the [[Arena (British TV series)|''Arena'' documentary series]].<ref name="cunningham">{{cite news | last=Nwokorie | first=Lynn | url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival/screenings/african-apocalypse | title=African Apocalypse | work=British Film Institute | date=16 October 2020 | accessdate=12 December 2021 | archive-date=8 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008195001/https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival/screenings/african-apocalypse | url-status=dead }}</ref>

A British animated film adaption of the novella is planned, directed by Gerald Conn. It was written by Mark Jenkins and Mary Kate O Flanagan and is produced by Gritty Realism and [[Michael Sheen]]. Kurtz is voiced by Sheen and Harlequin by [[Andrew Scott (actor)|Andrew Scott]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ritman |first=Alex |date=17 January 2019 |title=Michael Sheen, Matthew Rhys, Andrew Scott Board 'Heart of Darkness' Animated Adaptation (Exclusive) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michael-sheen-matthew-rhys-andrew-scott-board-heart-darkness-animated-adaptation-1176766/ |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref> The animation uses sand to better convey atmosphere of the book.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New film sets Conrad's classic 'Heart of Darkness' in sand |url=https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/new-film-sets-conrads-classic-heart-of-darkness-in-sand-4306 |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=www.thefirstnews.com |language=en}}</ref> A Brazilian animated film (2023) also adapts the novella. It is directed by Rogério Nunes and Alois Di Leo and moves the story to a near future [[Rio de Janeiro]].<ref>{{Citation |last=hype.cg |title=Heart of Darkness - Teaser |date=27 April 2016 |url=https://vimeo.com/164430398 |access-date=27 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Animation |first=SINLOGO |title=Heart of Darkness - Episode 4 - Trailer |date=8 June 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/274141543 |access-date=27 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Heart of Darkness |url=https://www.marchedufilm.com/projects/heart-of-darkness/ |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=Marché du Film |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Video games===
The video game ''[[Far Cry 2]]'', released on 21 October 2008, is a loose modernised adaptation of ''Heart of Darkness''. The player assumes the role of a mercenary operating in Africa whose task it is to kill an arms dealer, the elusive "Jackal". The last area of the game is called "The Heart of Darkness".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edge-online.com/features/feature-far-cry-2s-heart-darkness/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105214057/http://www.edge-online.com/features/feature-far-cry-2s-heart-darkness/| archive-date=5 November 2012|title=The Darkness|author=Mikel Reparaz|date=30 July 2007|work=GamesRadar+}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://infovore.org/archives/2008/12/22/africa-wins-again/| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105214057/http://www.edge-online.com/features/feature-far-cry-2s-heart-darkness/| archive-date=5 November 2012 |title=Africa Wins Again: Far Cry 2's literary approach to narrative |publisher=Infovore.org |access-date=17 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/content/far-cry-2-jorge-albor|title=Far Cry 2 – Jorge Albor – ETC Press|work=Cmu.edu|access-date=17 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526035812/http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/content/far-cry-2-jorge-albor|archive-date=26 May 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

''[[Spec Ops: The Line]]'', released on 26 June 2012, is a direct modernised adaptation of ''Heart of Darkness''. The player assumes the role of [[Delta Force]] operator [[Captain Martin Walker]] as he and his team search [[Dubai]] for survivors in the aftermath of catastrophic sandstorms that left the city without contact to the outside world. The character John Konrad, who replaces the character Kurtz, is a reference to Joseph Conrad.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2012/06/26/spec-ops-the-line-review-apocalypse-now-481099/| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://metro.co.uk/2012/06/26/spec-ops-the-line-review-apocalypse-now-481099/| archive-date=21 November 2021|title=Spec Ops: The Line preview – heart of darkness|date=10 January 2012|work=Metro}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Literature===
[[T. S. Eliot]]'s 1925 poem "[[The Hollow Men]]" quotes, as its first epigraph, a line from ''Heart of Darkness'': "Mistah Kurtz – he dead."<ref>Ebury, Katherine (2012). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/481055/pdf {{"'}}In this valley of dying stars': Eliot's Cosmology."] ''Journal of Modern Literature'', vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 139–157.</ref> Eliot had planned to use a quotation from the climax of the tale as the epigraph for ''[[The Waste Land]]'', but [[Ezra Pound]] advised against it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pound |first1=Ezra |title=The Letters of Ezra Pound |date=1950 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |page=234}}</ref> Eliot said of the quote that "it is much the most appropriate I can find, and somewhat elucidative."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eliot |first1=T. S. |title=The Letters of T. S. Eliot: 1898–1922 |date=1988 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=0-571-13621-4 |page=504}}</ref> Biographer [[Peter Ackroyd]] suggested that the passage inspired or at least anticipated the central theme of the poem.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Peter |title=T. S. Eliot |date=1984 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-671-53043-7 |page=118}}</ref>

[[Chinua Achebe]]'s 1958 novel ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' is Achebe's response to what he saw as Conrad's portrayal of Africa and Africans as symbols: "the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html| title=An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"|last=Achebe |first=Chinua|access-date=4 July 2022}}</ref>  Achebe set out to write a novel about Africa and Africans by an African. In ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' we see the effects of colonialism and Christian missionary endeavours on an Igbo community in West Africa through the eyes of that community's West African protagonists.

Another literary work with an acknowledged debt to ''Heart of Darkness'' is [[Wilson Harris]]' 1960 [[Postcolonial literature|postcolonial novel]] ''[[Palace of the Peacock]]''.<ref>Harris, Wilson (1960). ''Palace of the Peacock''. London: Faber & Faber.</ref><ref>Harris, Wilson (1981). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3818554?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "The Frontier on Which ''Heart of Darkness'' Stands."] ''Research in African Literatures'', vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 86–93.</ref><ref>Carr, Robert (1995). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/5269 "The New Man in the Jungle: Chaos, Community, and the Margins of the Nation-State."] ''Callaloo'', vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 133–156.</ref> [[J. G. Ballard]]'s 1962 [[climate fiction]] novel ''[[The Drowned World]]'' includes many similarities to Conrad's novella. However, Ballard said he had read nothing by Conrad before writing the novel, prompting literary critic Robert S. Lehman to remark that "the novel's allusion to Conrad works nicely, even if it is not really an allusion to Conrad".<ref>Ballard, J.G. (1962). ''The Drowned World''. New York: Berkley.</ref><ref>Lehman, Robert S. (2018). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/705433/pdf "Back to the Future: Late Modernism in J.G. Ballard's ''The Drowned World'']. ''Journal of Modern Literature'', vol. 41, no. 4, p. 167.</ref>

[[Robert Silverberg]]'s 1970 novel ''[[Downward to the Earth]]'' uses themes and characters based on ''Heart of Darkness'' set on the alien world of Belzagor.<ref name="huma_TheH">{{Cite web |title=The Humanoids Blog, Interview: Robert Silverberg |author= |work=humanoids.com |date= |access-date=9 July 2021 |url= https://www.humanoids.com/blog/The-Humanoids-Blog/id/461| url-status=live | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211121/https://www.humanoids.com/blog/The-Humanoids-Blog/id/461| archive-date=21 November 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In [[Josef Škvorecký]]'s 1984 novel ''The Engineer of Human Souls'', Kurtz is seen as the epitome of exterminatory colonialism and, there and elsewhere, Škvorecký emphasises the importance of Conrad's concern with Russian imperialism in Eastern Europe.<ref>Škvorecký, Josef (1984).  [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/crossc/ANW0935.1984.001/269:21?rgn=author;view=image;q1=Skvorecky%2C+Josef "Why the Harlequin?  On Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness''."]  ''Cross Currents:  A Yearbook of Central European Culture'', vol. 3, pp. 259–264.</ref>

[[Timothy Findley]]'s 1993 novel ''[[Headhunter (novel)|Headhunter]]'' is an extensive adaptation that reimagines Kurtz and Marlow as psychiatrists in Toronto. The novel begins: "On a winter's day, while a blizzard raged through the streets of Toronto, Lilah Kemp inadvertently set Kurtz free from page 92 of ''Heart of Darkness''."<ref>Findley, Timothy (1993). ''Headhunter''. Toronto: HarperCollins.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.3138/jcs.33.4.53|title = Intertextuality in Timothy Findley's Headhunter|year = 1999|last1 = Brydon|first1 = Diana|journal = Journal of Canadian Studies|volume = 33|issue = 4|pages = 53–62|s2cid = 140336153}}</ref> [[Ann Patchett]]'s 2011 novel ''[[State of Wonder]]'' reimagines the story with the central figures as female scientists in contemporary Brazil.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ciolkowski |first=Laura |date=8 July 2011 |title='State of Wonder' by Ann Patchett |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/chi-books-review-state-of-wonder-patchett-story.html |access-date=26 February 2023 |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Clark |first=Susan Storer |date=8 June 2011 |title=State of Wonder |url=https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/bookreview/state-of-wonder/ |access-date=26 February 2023 |website=Washington Independent Review of Books}}</ref>

===Comics===
A comics adaptation, ''[[Au coeur des ténèbres]]'', written by {{ill|Stéphane Miquel|fr}} and illustrated by {{ill|Loïc Godart|fr}}, was published by [[Soleil Productions|Soleil]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite news |last=Roure |first=Benjamin |date=13 March 2014 |url=https://www.bodoi.info/au-coeur-des-tenebres/ |title=Au coeur des ténèbres |newspaper={{ill|BoDoï|fr}} |language=fr |access-date=22 February 2025 }}</ref> {{ill|Jean-Pierre Pécau|fr}} and {{ill|Benjamin Bachelier|fr}} created another French comic adaptation, published as ''Coeur de ténèbres'' by [[Delcourt (publisher)|Delcourt]] in 2020.<ref>{{cite news |last=Roure |first=Benjamin |date=6 January 2020 |url=https://www.bodoi.info/coeur-de-tenebres/ |title=Coeur de ténèbres |newspaper={{ill|BoDoï|fr}} |language=fr |access-date=22 February 2025 }}</ref> 

A [[graphic novel]] adapted by David Zane Mairowitz (script) and Catherine Anyango Grünewald (artwork) appeared in 2010 from [[alternative comics]] publisher [[SelfMadeHero]]. A separate adaptation by [[Peter Kuper]], appeared 2019 from [[W. W. Norton & Company]]. The latter contained an introduction by [[historian]] [[Maya Jasanoff]]. 

[[Georges Bess]]' 2021 ''[[Bande dessinée]]'' ''Amen'' is a liberal adaptation of ''Heart of Darkness'' in a [[space opera]] setting.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rissel |first=François |date=21 April 2021 |url=https://www.bodoi.info/coeur-de-tenebres/ |title="Amen", Joseph Conrad réinterprêté en version SF par Georges Bess |newspaper={{ill|ActuaBD|fr}} |language=fr |access-date=22 February 2025 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book|title=Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness|editor=Bloom, Harold|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4381-1710-2|ref=CITEREFBloom2009}}
* {{cite book|title=King Leopold's Ghost|author=Hochschild, Adam|publisher=Mariner Books|date=October 1999|isbn=978-0-618-00190-3|chapter=Chapter 9: Meeting Mr. Kurtz|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingleopoldsghos00hoch_1/page/140 140–149]|ref=CITEREFHochschild1999|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kingleopoldsghos00hoch_1/page/140}}
* {{cite book|title=The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad|volume=2: 1898–1902|editor1=Karl, Frederick R.|editor2=Davies, Laurence|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-521-25748-0|ref=CITEREFKarlDavies1986}}
* {{cite book|title=Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Casebook|editor=Moore, Gene M.|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-515996-7|ref=CITEREFMoore2004}}
* {{cite book|title=Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness. A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism|editor=Murfin, Ross C.|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0-312-00761-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/heartofdarknessc0000conr}}
* {{cite book|title=Conrad's Western World|author=Sherry, Norman|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=30 June 1980|isbn=978-0-521-29808-7}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite thesis |last=Farn |first=Regelind |title=Colonial and Postcolonial Rewritings of "Heart of Darkness" – A Century of Dialogue with Joseph Conrad |url=http://dissertation.com/books/1581122896 |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-58112-289-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Firchow | first=P. |title=Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' |year=2000 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Lawtoo |editor-first=Nidesh |title=Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Contemporary Thought: Revisiting the Horror with Lacoue-Labarthe |year=2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Parry |first=Benita |title=Conrad and Imperialism |year=1983 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-04826-7 |isbn=978-1-349-04828-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Said |first=Edward W.|author-link=Edward Said |title=Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography |year=1966 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Watts |first=Cedric |title=Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness': A Critical and Contextual Discussion |year=1977 |publisher=Mursia International |location=Milan |isbn=}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource|Heart of Darkness|''Heart of Darkness''}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness}}
{{gutenberg|no=219|name=Heart of Darkness}}
* {{In Our Time|''Heart of Darkness''|b0077474|Heart_of_Darkness}}
* [http://www.loudlit.org/works/heartofdarkness.htm Downloadable audio book of ''Heart of Darkness'' by LoudLit.org]
* {{librivox book | title=Heart of Darkness | author=Joseph Conrad}}
* [http://www.mercurytheatre.info/ Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air audio books, also of ''Heart of Darkness'']
* [https://archive.org/details/OrsonWelles-MercuryTheater-1938Recordings Orson Welles Mercury Theatre 1938, also of ''Heart of Darkness'']
* [http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=orson+welles+radio&p=3&item=R89:0038 ''This Is My Best''—''Heart of Darkness''] (13 March 1945) at the [[Paley Center for Media]]
* [https://openchapter.io/Rg9LUOl/heart-of-darkness ''Heart of Darkness''] on OpenChapter

{{Conrad}}
{{Heart of Darkness}}
{{Apocalypse Now}}
{{Authority control}}

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