Will Baude of Crescat Sententia is enjoying Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; it has become one of my favorite literary works, although I didn’t appreciate it quite as much as I do now when my high school AP English teacher was cramming it down my throat. (I strongly recommend the Norton Critical Edition, linked above.)

Of course, it helps that Conrad’s book has reached archetypical status in contemporary culture, due in large part to its serving as the basis for Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam film, Apocalypse Now.

Update: Will Baude says “the movie that really best translates Heart of Darkness to the screen is Chinatown,” at least according to Ted Cohen. Perhaps at an archetypical level, but the plots are miles apart—most notably: I don’t remember an incest subplot in HoD.

Another Update: Dave Kozyr has a response to Will Baude as well. Furthermore, the documentary about the filming of Apocalypse Now is entitled… Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. I rest my case.