“This is the best Norton Critical Edition yet! All my students have become intensely interested in reading Conrad—largely because of this excellent work.” —Elise F. Knapp, Western Connecticut State University This Norton Critical Edition includes: - A newly edited text based on the first English book edition (1902), the last version to which Conrad is known to have actively contributed. “Textual History and Editing Principles” provides an overview of the textual controversies and ambiguities perpetually surrounding Heart of Darkness. - Background and source materials on colonialism and the Congo, nineteenth-century attitudes toward race, Conrad in the Congo, and Conrad on art and literature. - Fifteen illustrations. - Seven contemporary responses to the novella along with eighteen essays in criticism—ten of them new to the Fifth Edition, including an entirely new subsection on film adaptations of Heart of Darkness. - A Chronology and an updated Selected Bibliography.

コンラッドが描くのは、文明という仮面を剥ぎ取った先に現れる人間の根源的な闇です。コンゴ川を遡る旅は単なる探検ではなく、倫理が崩壊し狂気に蝕まれていく自己の内面へのダイブといえます。怪人物クルツの圧倒的な存在感と、重厚な文体が醸す緊張感こそが、本作を不朽の古典たらしめる文学的髄です。 この物語は映画地獄の黙示録等の傑作へ多大な影響を与えました。映像が狂気を視覚的に補完する一方、原作は言葉にできない沈黙や魂の侵食を読者の脳裏に直接刻み込みます。活字による心理的深層と映像の衝撃が響き合う時、あなたは真の暗闇の奥を体験するでしょう。