Heart of Darkness
Published in 1902, Heart of Darkness is a short novel by the Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad. It contains only about 38,000 words.
In this novella (short novel), a man named Marlow recounts a trip to Africa, where he gradually learns about a very mysterious man named Kurtz, encountering many horrifying events along the way. Heart of Darkness is a harsh criticism of European imperialism.
It is available in the public domain,[1] and is required reading for many high school students. English was not Conrad's first language, and he had some odd linguistic habits such as using a high number of words ending in "-less".[2] He also used very long paragraphs.
In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola released a film adaption of Heart of Darkness set during the Vietnam War titled Apocalypse Now.