Joseph Conrad · 1899 · river

Joseph Conrad's 1899 masterpiece. Aboard a boat on the Thames, Marlow recounts his time as a steamboat captain for a Belgian trading company: from the sepulchral city of Brussels, down the long African coast, and up the Congo River through the Outer and Central Stations to the Inner Station, where the ivory agent Kurtz has descended into madness. The frame and the homeward voyage close the circle back on the English river where the story is told.

1. 1
   The Thames

   Aboard a yawl anchored in the Thames estuary below London, Marlow begins his tale as night falls over the greatest town on earth.

2. 2
   Brussels

   In the sepulchral city, Marlow signs on with the Company at offices where two women sit knitting black wool, and is sent to the Congo.

3. 3
   Mouth of the Congo

   After a long steamer voyage down the African coast, he reaches the great river's mouth and the Company's first foothold.

4. 4
   Matadi

   At the Outer Station he finds a grove of dying labourers and a chain gang, the casual machinery of plunder dressed up as progress.

5. 5
   Kinshasa (Leopoldville)

   At the Central Station his steamer lies wrecked, and he waits among scheming agents who all speak of the remarkable Mr Kurtz, far upriver.

6. 6
   Inner Station (Stanley Falls)

   Deep in the interior, Marlow finds Kurtz, brilliant and dying, master of a cult of horror, his final whisper a verdict on everything he has seen.

7. 7
   Mouth of the Congo (return)

   He carries the dying Kurtz back down the river toward the coast, the wilderness closing in behind them.

8. 8
   The Thames (return)

   Back in the sepulchral city he lies to Kurtz's Intended to spare her, and on the Thames the tale ends where it began, the calm waterway seeming to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.