Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels"and part of the Western canon. The story centers on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa.Heart of Darkness (1899) is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's life as an ivory transporte ...