ABSTRACT
In 1899, when Heart of Darkness was published in Blackwood's Magazine, Joseph Conrad was in his early forties, and had made an unusual career change. Conrad's experiences, as recounted in his 'Congo Diary' and letters, are in many places close to the story that Marlow tells of himself in Heart of Darkness. Conrad goes on to undermine the usual ancestry for a tale of British imperialism still further, by introducing a historical perspective: that of the Roman colonizers in the first century. Although many of the experiences Charles Marlow recounts as his own in Heart of Darkness have parallels with Conrad's experiences in the Congo, it is in his role as narrator rather than as participant in the action that the link between the two is important. Seamen of Conrad's generation learned their craft under sail, but, by the end of the nineteenth century, steamships were taking over from long-distance sailing vessels.
