Joseph Conrad

Originally published in 1902, Heart of Darkness remains one of this century's most enduring - and harrowing - works of fiction. Written several years after Conrad's grueling sojourn in the Belgian Congo, the novel tells the story of Marlow, a seaman who undertakes his own journey into the African jungle to find the tormented white trader Kurtz. Rich in irony and spellbinding prose, Heart of Darkness is a complex meditation on colonialism, evil, and the thin line between civilization and barbarity. This edition contains selections from Conrad's Congo Diary of 1890 - the first notes, in effect, for the novel, which was composed at the end of that decade.

Edited by Cedric Watts, Nostromo is a superb evocation of exotic scenery and of a rootless mixed-race society peopled by characters ranging from the intellectual cynic Martin Decoud to 'Fussy Joe' Mitchell of the Merchant Service, from liberal idealists to fanatical clerics.