'Heart of Darkness' was written by:

"Heart of Darkness" is a novella by Joseph Conrad, first published in instalments in "Blackwood's Magazine" in 1899 and as a book in 1902.

About the novella:

It is told by Charles Marlow, a sailor, to friends on a boat on the River Thames in London.

Marlow describes his journey up the Congo River in Africa, working for a Belgian ivory trading company, to find Mr. Kurtz, a brilliant but mysterious ivory agent.

He witnesses the cruelty and greed of European colonisers towards Africans.

When he finds Kurtz, he discovers that Kurtz has set himself up almost as a god among local people and has become morally corrupt. Kurtz's dying words are "The horror! The horror!"

The story explores colonialism, imperialism, greed, the darkness within human beings and the thin line between civilisation and savagery.

It was based partly on Conrad's own journey to the Congo Free State in 1890, which was then the private colony of King Leopold II of Belgium.

It inspired the famous film "Apocalypse Now" (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, set during the Vietnam War.

In 1975, the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe criticised the novella as racist in his famous lecture "An Image of Africa".

About Joseph Conrad (1857-1924):

• He was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Berdychiv (then in the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine), to Polish parents.
• He became a sailor and later a British merchant navy captain.
• He learned English as an adult (his third language), yet became one of the greatest novelists in English.
• His other works include "Lord Jim" (1900), "Nostromo" (1904) and "The Secret Agent" (1907).

Other British writers about empire:

• Rudyard Kipling: "Kim", "The Jungle Book".
• M. Forster: "A Passage to India" (1924).
• Graham Greene: "The Heart of the Matter", "The Quiet American".
• George Orwell: "Burmese Days".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Rudyard Kipling wrote "Kim".
• ✗M. Forster wrote "A Passage to India".
• ✗Graham Greene wrote "The Heart of the Matter".