Share

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Editions) Paperback – December 13, 2005

by Joseph Conrad (Author), Paul B. Armstrong (Editor)

330 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Paperback

"Please retry"

$21.25

$18.92

$9.28

Paperback, December 13, 2005

$12.75

$8.20

$0.35

Paperback
$12.75

131 Used from $0.35 10 New from $8.20 3 Collectible from $5.99

The Fourth Edition is again based on Robert Kimbrough’s meticulously re-edited text.

Missing words have been restored and the entire novel has been repunctuated in accordance with Conrad’s style. The result is the first published version of Heart of Darkness that allows readers to hear Marlow’s voice as Conrad heard it when he wrote the story. "Backgrounds and Contexts" provides readers with a generous collection of maps and photographs that bring the Belgian Congo to life. Textual materials, topically arranged, address nineteenth-century views of imperialism and racism and include autobiographical writings by Conrad on his life in the Congo. New to the Fourth Edition is an excerpt from Adam Hochschild’s recent book, King Leopold’s Ghost, as well as writings on race by Hegel, Darwin, and Galton. "Criticism" includes a wealth of new materials, including nine contemporary reviews and assessments of Conrad and Heart of Darkness and twelve recent essays by Chinua Achebe, Peter Brooks, Daphne Erdinast-Vulcan, Edward Said, and Paul B. Armstrong, among others. Also new to this edition is a section of writings on the connections between Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now by Louis K. Greiff, Margot Norris, and Lynda J. Dryden. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Print length

536 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

December 13, 2005
Dimensions

5.2 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
ISBN-10

0393926362
ISBN-13

978-0393926361
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Chinua Achebe
48
Paperback
$27.65
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
16
Paperback
$10.76
+ $3.99 shipping
Joseph Conrad
189
Mass Market Paperback
$5.95
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Virginia Woolf
89
Paperback
$9.49
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Toni Morrison
7,254
Paperback
$9.31
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Joseph Conrad
4,462
Paperback
$5.95
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Chinua Achebe
4,975
Paperback
in African Literature
$6.99
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Joseph Conrad
634
Paperback
$6.25
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Toni Morrison
7,254
Paperback
$9.31
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
George Orwell
52,243
Mass Market Paperback
in Fiction Satire
$7.48
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Joseph Conrad
4,462
Paperback
$5.95
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Zora Neale Hurston
8,084
Paperback
$7.30
Get it as soon as Friday, Sep 17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul B. Armstrong is Professor of English and former Dean of the College at Brown University. He was previously a professor and a dean at the University of Oregon and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has also taught at the University of Copenhagen, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Free University of Berlin, the University of Virginia, and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the VisualArts. He is the author of How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art; Play and the Politics of Reading: The Social Uses of Modernist Form; Conflicting Readings: Variety and Validity in Interpretation; The Challenge of Bewilderment: Understanding and Representation in James, Conrad, and Ford; and The Phenomenology of Henry James. He is editor of the Norton Critical Edition of E. M.Forster’s Howards End and of the fourth and fifth Norton Critical Editions of Heart of Darkness.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 4th edition (December 13, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 536 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393926362
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393926361
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.13 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #591,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #977 in British & Irish Literary Criticism (Books)
- #3,715 in Classic American Literature
- #16,270 in Classic Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
330 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		81%
4 star		10%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

ANDREW R MAILER

By Far the Best Edition

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

This edition of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is excellent. It contains not only the original text but collateral essays. It is researched far beyond any other edition and well worth paying for. It’s a collector’s item for serious readers.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Peter Mccormick

The Best Edition of the Best Short Novel Ever Written

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is the best edition of the best novella-length story ever written -- an absolute masterpiece on several levels -- and the background and analytical materials in the Norton Critical Edition are invaluable. (Tip: Don't skip the letter in which Conrad describes his "method" of writing!) This is a difficult, complex story that, if you read far enough into it, will draw you in and will not let you go until the period at the end of the very last sentence. Not even then, in all likelihood. If you haven't read it, read it now! If you have read it, read the historical and critical materials in this edition and then read it again!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

David Fulmer

A spiritual voyage of self-discovery

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

A brilliant, enthralling masterpiece which can be read as an epic adventure or a psychological journey into the human interior, Heart of Darkness is a short novella brimming with brilliant ideas and memorable scenes and characters.

Helpful

Bruce Frier

Conrad, As Fine As It Gets

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

There is no point in lavishing superlatives on this famous story, told (so it is alleged) by "Marlow" -- an alter ego of Conrad himself -- during a long night on a boat in the Thames estuary. The story is filled with ambiguity about Marlow's earlier trip up the Congo River to visit an ivory-collecting station run by a ruthless agent named Kurtz. The ambiguity is on a number of fundamental levels as Conrad confronts basic internal contradictions of the colonial regime.

The Norton Critical Edition is much the best if you really want to explore these multiple layers. It presents both extensive documentary evidence on the colonial regime, and a generous selection of later critical reactions, including Achebe's famous attack on Conrad as a racist, plus a large number of answers to that attack. It is also very helpful to have a set of photographs of Conrad's own trip up the Congo.

One thing I would say is that is is now hard to read Heart of Darkness without remembering the movie Apocalypse Now, which is a sort of free-form adaptation. But the original novel is much subtler, and certainly the style of it is also vastly more sophisticated. In particular, one has to admire the clever way that Conrad undermines the credibility of Marlow by having him tell two huge lies in the last pages. We are left to make up our own minds about what to believe and how to evaluate what we believe. It is an enduring challenge.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anonymous

After all these years, ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2008

Verified Purchase

... I reread Heart of Darkness because my "guys" reading group included two who had not ever read it. The story stands up far, far better than I would have guessed. Conrad is really superb, and this shortish novel could well persuade new readers that "literary" stuff is worth their while. I had forgotten how subtle, how grown-up Conrad's expectations of his reader are. Truly quite marvelous.

With trepidation, I splurged on the Norton edition, even though I am pretty hostile to English-Professor post-modern posturing and nonsense. I am glad I got it, however. The wealth of historical documents help make the then-contemporary setting come real. The big surprise for me was Chinua Achebe's fine essay. While "bloody racist" is still over the top, Achebe has a case of some importance, and argues it well. It is even a comfort to find that the knee-jerk responses by assorted literature professors are indeed just as much postie poo as I had expected. (It's always a pleasure to find that one's unexamined prejudices are warranted after all.)

A particular pleasure for me was talking about the book with my daughter, who has taught it to her honors high school English class. She has developed views, and I learned really quite a lot from listening to her. Book, $11.90; my time, $free; finding out your daughter has deep insight and can teach you, PRICELESS.

In short, wonderful story and useful edition.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

RWH

helpful edition

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Well-complemented classic. The work is commonly recognized as the first modern novel/novella, in large part bc of its approach to stream of consciousness technique (pre-dating VW by a few years) and probably bc of the clarity with which it exposes post-Colonial issues (think: ivory-Belgium-Congo). The frame tale construction, combined with the soc technique, could make for rough going reading for some; however, the work's form *and* content (and how they're blended, in fact) make it *important* reading. It's probably not a beach read; with guidance most students seem to quickly understand and appreciate both the literary and the historical value of this work.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

M. Reader

The notes in this edition are not as thorough as other norton editions

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2010

Verified Purchase

This review is specifically about this Norton Edition. Normally I love Norton editions because the footnotes provide so much information and create the context for the story. The Norton edition of Wide Sargasso Sea is a great example; all types of historical footnotes about Jamaica and the situation in the Caribbean at that time fill the text. This edition, while it has articles that prove to be useful, is severely lacking in notation for the text itself. Heart of Darkness is a notoriously difficult novel to read and the notes provide little information. For instance, on p. 9 the narrator mentions arriving in a city that makes him think of a "white sepulchre." This city is Brussels, but there is no footnote saying so. The next page the narrator meets "The great man himself" which I'm guessing is Leopold, but again, no footnote. There are tons of similar examples. You have to be very familiar with the history of the Belgium Congo to understand the book, and Norton Editions are usually great for readers who aren't as familiar with the context of the work but this one is an exception to that case. I still give this edition three stars because as I said before the subsequent articles are very helpful.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Lewis Barclay

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is an outstanding edition of the Heart of Darkness. Half of the book consists of the novel, but the remaining half provides the reader with a number of contemporary documents and reports detailing the horrors of Belgian rule. An incredibly useful book for students of colonialism and state terror or anyone else interested in this profoundly dark period of colonial history.

2 people found this helpful

Jay

Heart of Darkness: 0 (Norton Critical Editions) Is The Best Version

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

Heart of Darkness: 0 (Norton Critical Editions):

This book is amazing! It has so much depth of content, hugely impressive.

I would highly recommend getting this version over others if you are interested in getting the most comprehensive text. It goes into the history, the thinking of the times, and has a number of literay reveiws.

If you are just after the story and are more of a casual reader this version will be overkill.

Shopper 05

Excellent.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

Delivered on time with no damages to the pages. Printed well with no errors. The extra information is also welcomed as is the critical approaches and context.

Amazon Customer

Historical read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

Good historical read

Jordan Burns

A classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

Didn’t realise I had bought the critical edition. The book isn’t that long but you get the critical view after. Heart of Darkness itself is fantastic and recommended reading for anyone

See all reviews

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: critical theory, scottish history

Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Editions) Paperback – December 13, 2005

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries