I know, shame on me, because this book is amazing.
It's by Joseph Conrad. I did a quick search about him (the only reason I knew he was important was because there was a Jeopardy question about him and the book), and I've found that he is considered one of the greatest authors in English (although he himself was Polish). When I typed his name in to the search engine, Google immediately associated him with Heart of Darkness which means one of two things: either it is indeed his most famous book, or many a student has tried to skip over reading it and find Crib notes.
Now, on to the story.
Marlow, the narrator, is telling the story whilst aboard a vessel. The entire story (save some brief interruptions and comments by the listeners) is told by him. It's a very interesting way to tell this story, especially considering how the novel progresses.
It takes place as the story teller is making his way into "the darkest heart" of Africa on an expedition. There is a particular man in the heart of the forest, who brings in more ivory than all the other individual camp leaders combined. This man, Kurtz, becomes one of the sad focuses of the story.
I'm not going to give away what happens, but I will say that the title of the book is very important for a number of different reason. Actually, out of all the books that I've read, this one by far makes the most references back to the title. When I first read the title, and the synopsis when I downloaded it, I assumed that the story was so named because the character was voyaging into the darkest heart of the Dark Continent. But as Conrad weaved the tale, especially during the climax of the story, you know that the continent isn't nearly as dark as the hearts of those "exploring" it.
I will say that Conrad uses the word "nigger" a couple of times, but it honestly wasn't much that I would take offense to. I did give the side eye a few times when reading some of his descriptions of the few black people that were described. It seemed as if they were just there for their physical, and that there wasn't much going on in the Black people's noodles. Now, he is in no way HP Lovecraft status.
As for reading the book... I'd suggest having a dictionary (specifically one that you know will have archaic/poetic terms) nearby, or having a proper digital download of it. It uses language that can be tricky if you're not familiar with older English writing. Conrad also uses very, very long sentences, so I had to read some of them more than once, just to get the flow and cadence right. This is definitely a book that I will have to read again. I won't say that I have to study it the way I want to study Venus in Furs, but in order to get everything out of it that I can, I will have to revisit it a few times. It is the kind of book that at times, you start to read aloud, to test the power of the words in your own mouth. I will admit, I tried to read the first page of the story a few times, and I thought it was going to be boring, but I implore any reader, read the first five pages of a book before deciding whether or not it is something that you want to read. Sometimes the first page is a little slow because the setting is being established, as are the players.
Since reading this, I'm definitely going to look into more of Joseph Conrad's work, especially one story I've found called The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'. The synopsis looks really nice, and I know that Conrad really has a way with words.
I can't say that from reading this book, I've gotten some direct inspiration going down my fingers for me to begin to write so magnificently. I think it's far more subtle than that. I'm not even going to try and begin to write in such a manner, and I know that it's going to take me years to even begin to get as deep as Conrad did.
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