Sunday Pages: "Heart of Darkness"
Sunday Pages: "Heart of Darkness" A novel by Joseph Conrad Greg Olear May 17 Dear Reader, Friday night, I finally caught the bad cold that’s been making its way through my house for the last two weeks. So I hope you’ll forgive me re-running the below piece, which I think is one of the best “Sunday Pages” dispatches, and one that was written too late to include in The Age of Unreality . Every piece at PREVAIL is free to read and always will be. No paywalls, ever. Your generous support keeps it that way. Thank you! February 9, 2025 According to the critic Harold Bloom, who would know, Heart of Darkness , Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novel, is the single most analyzed piece of literature in college English departments the world over. He attributes this to the book’s “unique propensity for ambiguity.” While it is certainly true that Conrad has a flair for the ambiguous, I think the reason is less lofty than Bloom pretends. Having taught creative writing as an adjunct, and thus pr...