Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Frederick Davidson

Marlow, the story’s narrator, tells his friends of an experience in the British Congo where he once ran a river steamer for a trading company. He tells of the ivory traders’ cruel exploitation of the natives there. Chief among these is a greedy and treacherous European named Kurtz, a man who has used savagery to obtain semi-divine power over the natives. While Marlow tries to get Kurtz back down the river, Kurtz tries to justify his actions and motions, asserting that he has seen into the very heart of things.

Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) (1857-1924) was born in the Ukraine. He was raised by an uncle after the death of his parents, who were ardent Polish patriots. As a boy he educated himself by reading widely in Polish and French. At twenty-one he began serving on French merchant vessels, and for twenty years he sailed the seven seas. After that he went to London and began writing, using the romance and adventure of his own life for his incomparable sea novels.