A Western trading concern hires Marlow to pilot a motorboat in the Congo River in search of Kurtz—a first-class ivory agent as well as the manager of the firm’s highly profitable Inner Station—who’s believed to be on his deathbed. With a handful of pilgrims as his passengers and a crew of cannibals, Marlow steams his way in to the African interior. The terrifying finding he makes by the end of his journey and the horrors he witnesses on the way have excited and disturbed visitors for more than a century.

A searing indictment of imperialism and a haunting exposé of mankind’s savage character, Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece.