Marlow seiler oppover Kongo-elven for å møte den fryktede og respekterte handelsmannen Kurtz. Møtet avslører marerittlignende tilstander i jungelens indre. Årene i jungelen har formørket Kurtz. hjerte, hinnen mot den totale galskap er skrellet vekk. Mørkets hjerte er en av verdens viktigste og mest omtalte bøker, både som et hovedverk i modernistisk litteratur, som en nøkkeltekst i postkoloniale studier, og som en roman som har inspirert utallige kunstnere i ulike sjangrer. Særlig kjent er romanen som hovedinspirasjon for Francis Ford Coppolas film "Apokalypse nå" (1979).

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'A worldwide bestseller and the first part of Achebe's African Trilogy, Things Fall Apart is the compelling story of one man's battle to protect his community against the forces of changeOkonkwo is the greatest wrestler and warrior alive, and his fame spreads throughout West Africa like a bush-fire in the harmattan. But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial governors have arrived in the village.With his world thrown radically off-balance he can only hurtle towards tragedy. First published in 1958, Chinua Achebe's stark, coolly ironic novel reshaped both African and world literature, and has sold over ten million copies in forty-five languages. This arresting parable of a proud but powerless man witnessing the ruin of his people begins Achebe's landmark trilogy of works chronicling the fate of one African community, continued in Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease.

<strong>Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a real classic.</strong><p><br></p><p>You should grab it and read it to experience it yourself.</p><p><strong>Here's a simple plot to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad</strong></p><p>As a child, Marlow had been fascinated by "the blank spaces" on maps, particularly by the biggest, which by the time he had grown up was no longer blank but turned into "a place of darkness". Yet there remained a big river, "resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land". The image of this river on the map fascinated Marlow "as a snake would a bird". Feeling as though "instead of going to the centre of a continent I were about to set off for the centre of the earth", Marlow takes passage on a French steamer bound for the African coast and then into the interior. After more than thirty days the ship anchors off the seat of government near the mouth of the big river. Marlow, with still some two hundred miles to go, takes passage on a little sea-going steamer captained by a Swede. He departs some thirty miles up the river where his company's station is. Work on the railway is going on, involving removal of rocks with explosives. Marlow enters a narrow ravine to stroll in the shade under the trees, and finds himself in "the gloomy circle of some Inferno" the place is full of diseased Africans who worked on the railroad and now await their deaths, their sickened bodies already as thin as air. Marlow witnesses the scene "horror-struck".</p><p><br></p><p>Marlow has to wait for ten days in the company's Outer Station, where he sleeps in a hut. At this station, which strikes Marlow as a scene of devastation, he meets the company's impeccably dressed chief accountant who tells him of a Mr. Kurtz, who is in charge of a very important trading-post, and a widely respected, first-class agent, a "'very remarkable person'" who "'Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together'". The agent predicts that Kurtz will go very far: "'He will be a somebody in the Administration before long. They, above-the Council in Europe, you know-mean him to be'".</p><p><br></p><p>Marlow departs with a caravan of sixty men to travel on foot about 200 miles (320 km) into the wilderness to the Central Station, where the steamboat that he is to captain is based. On the fifteenth day of his march, he arrives at the station, which has some twenty employees and is shocked to learn from a fellow European that his steamboat had been wrecked in a mysterious accident two days earlier. He meets the general manager, who informs him that he could wait no longer for Marlow to arrive, because the up-river stations had to be relieved and tells a rumour that one important station is in jeopardy because its chief, the exceptional Mr. Kurtz, is ill. "Hang Kurtz", Marlow thinks, irritated. He fishes his boat out of the river and is occupied with its repair for some months, during which a sudden fire destroys a grass shed full of materials used to trade with the natives. While one of the natives is tortured for allegedly causing the fire, Marlow is invited in the room of the station's brick-maker, a man who spent a year waiting for material to make bricks. Marlow gets the impression the man wants to pump him and is curious to know what kind of information he is after. Hanging on the wall is "a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch". Marlow is fascinated with the sinister effect of the torchlight upon the woman's face, and...</p><p>....</p><p>...</p><p>...</p>Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

En sjøroman som også er en myte om vårt eget århundre. Bokas forteller er annenstyrmann Peder Jensen om bord i barken Neptun, som seiler ut fra Manila i 1899. Skildringen av den stormfulle ferden over havet med haiene i kjølvannet blir en beretning om ondskap og grusomhet og ukjente underverdener i menneskesinnet.

Jim Hawkins, den fattige sønnen til en engelsk vertshusholder, har et ekte skattekart mellom hendene. Det viser hvor sjørøverkaptein Flints store gullskatt ligger gjemt. Jim drar ut på ei eventyrlig reise med skonnerten Hispaniola for å finne sjørøvernes øy i Stillehavet. Flere er ute etter skatten, og Jim skjønner etter hvert at mange av sjømennene på Hispaniola er sjørøvere. De venter bare på det rette øyeblikket, da de skal drepe Jim og vennene hans, og tilrøve seg gullet.

...

Marlow, a seaman and wandered, recounts his physical and psychological journey in search of the infamous ivory trader Kurtz. Travelling up river to the heart of the African continent, he gradually becomes obsessed by this enigmatic, wraith-like figure. Marlow's discovery involves him in a radical questioning, not only of his own nature and values, but those of Western civilization. A haunting and hugely influential Modernist masterpiece, Heart of Darkness (1899) explores the limits of human experience as well as the nightmarish realities of imperialism.

Styrmannen Lord Jim forlater et havarert skip i Det arabiske hav, overbevist om at det vil synke med alle sine passasjerer. Skipet blir imidlertid berget likevel, og Jim blir stilt for retten og fradømmes sitt styrmannssertifikat.

I den oppdiktede søramerikanske gruvebyen Sulaco opererer italieneren Nostromo. Han hjelper og støtter dem som har bruk for ham, og blir beundret og respektert for dette. I forbindelse med et nytt opprør i staten får han i oppdrag å redde en stor sølvskatt fra en revolusjonær diktator. Dette, og møtet med en kvinne som ikke er tiltenkt ham, setter hans ære og integritet på prøve. Boka ble opprinnelig skrevet som en føljetong for T.P. O'Connor's Weekly i 1904. Temaet er delaktighet, skyld og ansvar.

Dette er fortellingen om en damper på China-kysten som seiler rett inn i et forrykende uvær, en morderisk orkan. Skuten presses ned i de frådende bølgene, sjøen slår inn over skipet og feier dekket rent. Under dekk raser en annen storm. Skipets passasjerer og to hundre kinesiske kulier gripes i sin dødsangst av et vanvittig raseri mot hverandre.

Dell Publishing Co Førsteutgave 1960

I Joseph Conrads episke kortroman fra 1902 møter vi Marlow, som reiser opp langs Kongofloden for å møte den mystiske Kurtz. Boken tegner et grelt portrett av de europeiske kolonimaktenes opptreden i Afrika, men den handler også om Marlows økende selvinnsikt; dette er i like stor grad en psykologisk reise. I denne svært stemningsfulle gjengivelsen lar tegneren Catherine Anyango den intrikate blyantstreken bli stadig mer abstrakt etter hvert som Marlow seiler lenger og lenger inn mot mørkets hjerte ...

I denne boka tar forfatteren leseren med på en reise til hjertet av Sahara, til en ørken der alt liv er dødd ut, og konstaterer at folkemordene verken begynte eller sluttet med nazismen. Boka er en utforsking av rasismens historie og konsekvenser i århundret før nazismen.

Boken er en essayistisk vandring gjennom et stort utvalg moderne reiselitteratur, fra Joseph Conrad til Dag Solstad. De litterære strategiene vies spesiell oppmerksomhet. Hva slags politisk oppdrag er forfatteren ute i? Hvordan navigerer man mellom liv og litteratur, sannhet og fiksjon? Og hvordan bidrar man til en forståelse av verden og av oss selv i den? Har register.

The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Travel Writing offers readers an insight into the scope and range of perspectives that one encounters in this field of writing. Encompassing a diverse range of texts and styles, performances and forms, postcolonial travel writing recounts journeys undertaken through places, cultures, and communities that are simultaneously living within, through, and after colonialism in its various guises. The Companion is organized into three parts. Part I, 'Departures', addresses key theoretical issues, topics, and themes. Part II, 'Performances', examines a range of conventional and emerging travel performances and styles in postcolonial travel writing. Part III, 'Peripheries' continues to shift the analysis of travel writing from the traditional focus on Eurocentric contexts. This Companion provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the field, appealing to students and teachers of travel writing and postcolonial studies.

Boken inneholder blant annet Lord Jim og Heart of Darkness. Lord Jim handler om styrmannen Lord Jim som forlater et havarert skip i Det arabiske hav, overbevist om at det vil synke med alle sine passasjerer. Skipet blir imidlertid berget likevel, og Jim blir stilt for retten og fradømmes sitt styrmannssertifikat. Heart of Darkness handler om noen menn som er samlet på en seilkutter i Themsen. Mens mørket faller, forteller Marlow om sin reise oppover Kongofloden for å hente en av selskapets elfenbensjegere. Med seg fra elva har Marlow innsikten om sitt eget medansvar for alle fortidens redsler. Alle bøkene handler om livet til sjøs, og endel er basert på forfatterens egne opplevelser.

In these three sea stories, based on his own experience, the author invests his portraits of mundane steamers and their crews with epic qualities of fortitude and courage in the face of overwhelming natural odds.

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