Book Club Guide

Heart of Darkness

Key themes

Colonialism and the lies that sustain it
Kurtz as the European ideal taken to its logical end
Darkness — literal, moral and epistemological

About this book

Marlow, a riverboat captain, travels deep into the Belgian Congo to find the ivory trader Kurtz, whose methods have become legendary for their horror. One of the most debated texts in English literature — a study of colonialism and the human capacity for evil that has itself been accused of reproducing the racism it critiques.

Published serially in 1899 and as a book in 1902, Heart of Darkness draws on Conrad's own experience navigating the Congo River in 1890. It is one of the most widely taught and debated texts in the English literary canon.

Discussion questions

Marlow tells the story of Kurtz but withholds his final judgment for most of the narrative. What effect does this structural delay create — and what does the famous last words reveal?
The novella has been accused of perpetuating the racism it seems to critique — Achebe's famous 1977 essay called it 'an offensive and deplorable book.' How do you engage with this critique while reading Conrad's text?
Kurtz has gone into the heart of Africa a humanitarian and emerged a monster. What does Conrad say through this transformation about the nature of civilisation — and of the human beings who believe in it?
Marlow's frame narrative — telling the story on a dark Thames — connects the Congo to England. What does Conrad intend by this geographical parallel?
The darkness of the title multiplies throughout the novella. By the end, what do you think it refers to — the African landscape, European hypocrisy, the nature of evil, or something harder to name?