Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad , initially published as a three-part piece in Blackwood's Magazine , that tells the story of Charles Marlow, a steamer captain tasked with recovering an ivory trader who has lost touch with his Belgian trading company. Throughout Marlow's voyage up the Congo River , he is exposed to and recounts different horrors and hypocrisies of European Imperialism . Conrad served as a maritime marine in 1890 in the Congo Free State , and his time there is often credited with inspiring Heart of Darkness . Consequently, Conrad delivers an almost firsthand account of a hypothetical [European male] experiencing colonialism in the late 1800s. However, until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, it was seen as a minor piece of work, even by Conrad. It is now considered one of the earliest written anti-imperial texts to gain major popularity. One of the central themes of the story is that civilized society is not so civilized; it merely exports its savagery to other parts of the world. Note: Heart of Darkness is considered an anti-colonial work, but it requires a bit of historic context to benefit from. While Conrad certainly had anti-colonial opinions to share with the world, he was still no doubt a bystander and a major beneficiary of colonialism. He was also not a victim of colonialism but a part of the perpetrating society of it, and subsequently, some of his critiques fall very short of what we would consider liberal and humane today. BUY NOW Previous Next

19 Heart of Darkness 1899 Joseph Conrad Read More 18 Sometimes a Great Notion July 1964 Ken Kesey Read More 17 The Hundred Years' War on Palestine January 2020 Rashid Khalidi Read More 16 Slouching Towards Bethlehem 1968 Joan Didion Read More 15 The Color Purple 1982 Alice Walker Read More 14 Lord of the Flies September 1954 William Golding Read More 13 Miles: The Autobiography 1989 Miles Davis & Quincy Troupe Read More 12 The Fruit Palace January 1985 Charles Nicholl Read More 11 Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation May 2020 Kristin Kobes Du Mez Read More 10 The Lost City of Z February 2009 David Grann Read More 9 Fahrenheit 451 October 1953 Ray Bradbury Read More 8 Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 1973 Hunter S. Thompson Read More 7 No Country for Old Men July 2005 Cormac McCarthy Read More 6 Legacy of Ashes January 2006 Tim Weiner Read More 5 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest February 1962 Ken Kesey Read More 4 The Monkey Wrench Gang August 1975 Edward Abbey Read More 3 The Great Shark Hunt 1979 Hunter S. Thompson Read More 2 The Nickle Boys July 2019 Colson Whitehead Read More 1 The Bonfire of the Vanities October 1987 Tom Wolfe Read More

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 Hunter S. Thompson 1973 Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 recounts and analyzes the 1972 presidential campaign in which Richard Nixon was re-elected. Illustrated by Ralph Steadman , the book was largely derived from Thompson's articles serialized in Rolling Stone throughout 1972. The book focuses on the Democratic Party 's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates such as Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey . Of particular focus is the manic maneuvering of George McGovern 's campaign during the Miami convention as they sought to ensure the Democratic nomination despite attempts by Humphrey and other candidates to block McGovern. Thompson began his campaign coverage in December 1971, just as the race toward the primaries was beginning, from a rented apartment in Washington, D.C. (a situation he compared to "living in an armed camp, a condition of constant fear"). Over the next twelve months, in voluminous detail, he covered every aspect of the campaign, from the smallest rally to the raucous conventions. An early fax machine was procured for Thompson after he inquired about the device while visiting venture capitalist Max Palevsky , who concurrently served as chairman of Xerox and Rolling Stone for several years in the early 1970s. Dubbing it "the mojo wire", Thompson used the nascent technology to capitalize on the freewheeling nature of the campaign and extend the writing process precariously close to printing deadlines, often haphazardly sending in notes mere hours before the magazine went to press. Fellow writers and editors would have to assemble the finished product with Thompson over the phone. Like his earlier book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Thompson employed a number of unique literary styles in On the Campaign Trail , including the use of vulgarity and the humorous exaggeration of events. Despite the unconventional style, the book is still considered a hallmark of campaign journalism and helped to launch Thompson's role as a popular political observer. BUY NOW Previous Next