"For one hundred years, Heart of Darkness has been among the most widely read and taught novels in the English language. Hailed as an incisive indictment of European imperialism in Africa upon its publication in 1899, more recently it has been repeatedly denounced as racist and imperialist."--BOOK JACKET. "Peter Firchow counters these claims, and his rational, carefully argued response allows the charges of Conrad's alleged bias to be evaluated as objectively as possible. He believes that what Conrad saw personally in Africa should not be confused with the Africa he describes in the novel; Heart of Darkness is instead an envisioning and a revisioning of Conrad's experiences in the medium of fiction."--BOOK JACKET.