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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Heart of Darkness
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Story by *Conrad, written in 1899 and published with two others in Youth (1902). A disturbing and very personal insight into Africa and colonial exploitation, it is closely based on Conrad's own experiences during a journey up the Congo in 1890. The narrator, Marlow, describes how he penetrated deeper and deeper into the continent in search of a mysterious Mr Kurtz, the most successful agent of a company trading in ivory. He finds him, at the very heart of darkness, surrounded by human heads on stakes but enjoying an almost god-like status among the local tribe. Kurtz dies with a despairing cry ('The horror! The horror!'), but back in Europe Marlow feels constrained to tell Kurtz's girlfriend that her name was the last word he spoke.
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