Heart of Darkness: Brussels to the Congo River

Heart of Darkness begins its errand in Europe. Marlow crosses the Channel to sign his contract and arrives in a city that, he says, "always makes me think of a whited sepulchre." The novella never names it, but readers identify Brussels, seat of the Belgian company. Finding the Company's offices is easy: they are "the biggest thing in the town," and everyone is full of the plan to run an over-sea empire. Conrad's own job came the same way, through Albert Thys of the Belgian Société Anonyme pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo.

Location precision: The book never names the city; the pin marks central Brussels.

Marlow's ship reaches the Congo coast and anchors "off the seat of the government." The book names no town, but Boma fits: it was the capital of the Congo Free State. Roger Casement, whom Conrad met on the Congo in 1890, later served as British consul there. Marlow's real work lies two hundred miles on, so he soon boards a small steamer upriver.

Location precision: The novella does not name the town; Boma is the likely colonial capital of the time.

A Swedish captain points out "your Company's station" on a hillside of excavations and iron roofs, with the noise of the rapids hanging over the scene of what Marlow calls inhabited devastation. Matadi matches the setting: it was the last navigable port going upstream on the Congo River. Conrad's friend Casement ran a trading and transport station there. From here Marlow must leave the water and walk.

Location precision: The book never names the station; Matadi is the usual identification, at the head of navigation.

Marlow's fifteen-day march bypasses the Livingstone Falls, a series of rapids that drops 270 metres over 350 kilometres between Malebo Pool and Matadi. On the fifteenth day he "came in sight of the big river again." The pin marks Inga Falls, a group of rapids in the later part of the series, to show the stretch he walks around, since the novella gives no place names for the march.

Location precision: Marlow's route is not named; the pin marks Inga Falls within the Livingstone Falls stretch.

Marlow "hobbled into the Central Station," only to learn that his steamer is "at the bottom of the river." Léopoldville fits the geography: it was the first navigable port on the Congo River above Livingstone Falls, so goods from the coast reached the river there. The wait for rivets and repairs becomes the book's long frustration before the voyage to Kurtz can begin.

Location precision: The station is unnamed; the pin marks Kinshasa, formerly Léopoldville, where the river becomes navigable.

Marlow is sent to find Kurtz, an ivory trader at a station far up the river. Kurtz is the book's heart: his dying words are "The horror! The horror!" The station is fictional. The pin marks Kindu, the innermost station Conrad reached on his own journey up the Lualaba, a stand-in for the real river trip that fed the story.

Location precision: The Inner Station is invented; the pin marks Kindu, the innermost station Conrad reached.