🇬🇧"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad follows Marlow, a sailor who takes a job as a steamboat captain on the Congo River for a European trading company. He's tasked with finding Kurtz, a highly successful ivory trader, who has become isolated and ill deep in the African continent. As Marlow journeys further into the heart of Africa, he witnesses the brutality and exploitation inflicted by the colonizers, and confronts the darkness within both the African wilderness and the human soul, particularly in Kurtz, who has succumbed to savage desires. The novella explores themes of colonialism, racism, power, and the corrupting influence of unchecked ambition.
🇪🇸"El corazón de las tinieblas" de Joseph Conrad sigue a Marlow, un marinero que acepta un trabajo como capitán de un barco de vapor en el río Congo para una compañía comercial europea. Tiene la tarea de encontrar a Kurtz, un comerciante de marfil muy exitoso, que se ha aislado y enfermado en lo profundo del continente africano. A medida que Marlow viaja más hacia el corazón de África, es testigo de la brutalidad y la explotación infligidas por los colonizadores y se enfrenta a la oscuridad tanto dentro del desierto africano como en el alma humana, particularmente en Kurtz, quien ha sucumbido a los deseos salvajes. La novela explora temas de colonialismo, racismo, poder y la influencia corruptora de la ambición desenfrenada.
CHAPTER 1
The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the
sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and
being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait
for the turn of the tide.
The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an
interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded
together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of
the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of
canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on
the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark
above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a
mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest,
town on earth.
The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four
affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to
seaward. On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so
nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness
personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the
luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the
sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of
separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns—
and even convictions. The Lawyer—the best of old fellows—had, because
of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was
lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of
dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat
cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken
cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with
his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. The
Director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat
down amongst us. We exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there
was silence on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not
begin that game of dominoes.
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