Issue #0

Heart Of Darkness (Essential.Penguin S.)

a case study in contemporary criticism

Plot

This is a journey into the heart of Mr. Kurtz -- so sensitive, so civilized -- who, at the savage center of the jungle, sees into the darkness of himself, and dies. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision -- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath -- "The horror! The horror!" T.S. Eliot's use of this quotation from Heart of Darkness as an epigraph to the original manuscript of The Wasteland was no doubt inspired by his belief that Mr. Kurtz, the ambiguous hero of the story, stands at the dark heart of the twentieth century. The cover shows a detail from "The Steamer Stanley" by F. Hens, by kind permission of P. Staner (photo Alain Laurent, Brussels). - Back cover.