Feb. 24, 2023— Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

The next meeting of Great Books KC will be February 24, 2023.  We will discuss Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: February 24, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Description of Book:
Hear of Darkness is (1899) is a novella by Polish-Englishnovelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and economically important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is given a text by Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition.

Jan. 27, 2023—Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

 The next meeting of Great Books KC will be January 27, 2023.  We will discuss Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

Meeting Date & Time:
Date: January 27, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm

 Zoom On-Line Meeting:
 — an email with link to join will be sent prior to meeting.
 — the link is sent to a limited mailing list of frequent attenders.
 — request mailing list addition, send to GreatBooksKC@gmail.com.

Description of Book:

Journey to the End of the Night is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in the World War I, colonial Africa, the United States and the poor suburbs of Paris where he works as a doctor.

The novel won the Prix Renaudot in 1932 but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his innovative writing style based on working class speech, slang and neologisms. It is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.