Heart of Darkness (Reader's Library Classics)

But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.

In the heart of Africa, Englishman Charles Marlow begins a journey to an important ivory trading post to check on the post's commander named Kurtz, who had fallen ill. On his steamboat down the Congo River, Marlow hears rumors and stories surrounding the enigmatic Kurtz. The native lore strongly suggests Kurtz is one to be feared, yet there is an almost mystical and divine-like reverence for the man.

One of the most influential novels of the 19th century, Heart of Darkness explores the disturbing idea that the sanity residing in the human psyche is frightfully close to the edge of madness.