Heart of Darkness, a book by Joseph Conrad, was first published in 1899 in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and later in Conrad's Youth and Two Other Stories (1902). Heart of Darkness considers the terror of Western colonialism, portraying it as a peculiarity that damages not only the lands and peoples it exploits but also those in the West who advance it. Even though it initially received an uninspired reception, Conrad's semiautobiographical story has proceeded to become one of the most widely examined works of English literature. Readers have not always treated Heart of Darkness well, reproving its dehumanizing portrayal of colonized peoples and its dismissive treatment of women. Heart of Darkness, on the other hand, has endured as a Modernist masterpiece directly linked to postcolonial realities.
