Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' is widely regarded as one of the most significant works of English literature and part of the Western canon. The story was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now'. This highly symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, his adventure into the Congo to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary. The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain, employed by a Belgian trading company. Although the river is never specifically named, readers may assume it is the Congo River, in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up.

Product Description: This is the third edition of an essential glossary for students, now thoroughly updated and expanded with more than 50 new literary and critical terms. This title offers a comprehensive reference that clearly and accessibly defines over 850 important literary and critical terms from classical times to the present...read more

Product Description: This volume presents the authoritative Centenary Edition text of Hawthorne's classic 1851 novel, along with critical essays that read The Scarlet Letter from contemporary reader-response, psychoanalytic, feminist, and new historicist perspectives...read more