Book of Month: April 2024

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Arabic Edition

(4)
Publisher: Xlibris
Year: 2013

Heart of Darkness follows one man's nightmarish journey into the interior of Africa. Aboard a British ship called the Nellie, three men listen to a man named Marlow recount his journey into Africa as an agent for the Company, a Belgian ivory trading firm. Along the way, he witnesses brutality and hate between colonizers and the native African people, becomes entangled in a power struggle within the Company, and finally learns the truth about the mysterious Kurtz, a mad agent who has become both a god and a prisoner of the "native Africans" After "rescuing" Kurtz from the native African people, Marlow watches in horror as Kurtz succumbs to madness, disease, and finally death. Marlow's decision to support Kurtz over his company leaves readers wondering about his moral integrity, and possibly asking the question: He did WHAT? The novel closes with Marlow's guilt-ridden visit to Kurtz's fiancée to return the man's personal letters.

This Arabic edition is translated by Hani Yared.