Congo Diary

These African diaries--written when Che Guevara tried to help the people of the Congo throw off the yoke of colonial imperialism--afford a very personal insight into the thoughts and emotions of one of the 20th century's greatest revolutionary martyrs. of photos.

River steamboat captain Charles Marlow has set forth on the Congo in Africa to find the enigmatic European trader Mr. Kurtz. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in "one of the darkest places on earth." Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad. A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written. Revised edition: Previously published as Heart of Darkness, this edition of Heart of Darkness (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Introduction -- The Congo diary, 1890 -- Up-river book, 1890 -- The sisters, 1895-96 -- Letter to the New York times Saturday book review, 1901 -- The books of my childhood, 1902 -- On the North Sea outrage, 1904 -- My best story and why I think so, 1906 -- The silence of the sea, 1909 -- A set of six, 1915 -- From the preface to "Youth" and "Gaspar Ruiz," 1920 -- Cablegram to the Committee for the Polish government loan, Washington, 1920 -- Foreword to Corsican and Irish landscapes, 1921 -- The first thing I remember, 1921 -- A Hugh Walpole anthology introductory note, 1922 -- Foreword to J.G. Sutherland: At sea with Joseph Conrad, 1922 -- Proust as creator, 1923 -- Foreword to A.J. Dawson: Britain's life-boats, 1923.--Draft of speech to be made at the Life-boat institution at the ninety-ninth meeting, 1923 -- Speech at the Lifeboat institution, 1923 -- Warrington Dawson: Adventure in the night, 1924 -- Preface to The nature of a crime, 1924 -- The nature of a crime, 1924 -- Biographical bibliography (p.152-158).

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Introduction by Caryl Phillips Commentary by H. L. Mencken, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Lionel Trilling, Chinua Achebe, and Philip Gourevitch Originally published in 1902, Heart of Darkness remains one of this century’s most enduring works of fiction. Written several years after Joseph Conrad’s grueling sojourn in the Belgian Congo, the novel is a complex meditation on colonialism, evil, and the thin line between civilization and barbarity. This edition contains selections from Conrad’s Congo Diary of 1890—the first notes, in effect, for the novel, which was composed at the end of that decade. Virginia Woolf wrote of Conrad: “His books are full of moments of vision. They light up a whole character in a flash. . . . He could not write badly, one feels, to save his life.”

Che Guevara "disappeared" from Cuba in 1965 to lead a guerrilla mission to support a revolutionary movement in the Congo. Until recently, very little has been known of this mission which proved to be a disastrous failure. This book publishes extensive excerpts from Guevara's fascinating, and sometimes shockingly frank, diary of the Congo experience.

Director Steven Soderberg based his epic biopic on two classic diaries written by Che Guevara: Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Bolivian Diary. Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara includes a section from each of these books, showing the young Argentine's evolution, in his own words, from the wide-eyed medical student of the Motorcycle Diaries era to the revolutionary hero the world knows as Che.

Featuring a foreword by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ("Che Guevara in Africa"), this book fills in the missing chapter in Che Guevara's life as head of the secret Cuban force that went to aid the liberation movement in the Congo against the Belgian colonialists in 1965. The idea was to prepare a group of Cubans for the mission to Bolivia, as well as to assist African national liberation movements. This diary remained unpublished for decades because of its controversial content, but, like his other diaries, reveals Che's great literary gift, his razor-sharp intellect, his dry wit, and his brutal honesty. Because this diary deals with what Che admits was a "failure," he examines every painful detail about what went wrong in order to draw constructive lessons for future expeditions. This publication of the complete Congo Diary has been thoroughly revised by Che's widow, Aleida March, and published in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana. Features: Forewords by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ("Che Guevara in Africa") and Che's daughter, Aleida Guevara Twenty-eight pages of unpublished photos Extensive notes and glossary explaining Swahili terms Backcover blurbs by Nelson Mandela and Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Ernesto Che Guevara's diary of his revolutionary struggle in Congo alongside Cuban guerrillas. In April 1965, Che Guevara set out clandestinely from Havana to Congo to head a force of some 200 veteran Cuban soldiers to assist the African liberation movement against Belgian colonialists, four years after the assassination of the democratically elected socialist president of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. This diary deals with what Che admits was a "failure," and he examines every painful detail about what went wrong in order to draw constructive lessons for planned future guerrilla movements. Unique among his books, Congo Diary gives us Che's brutal honesty and his story-telling ability as he recounts this fascinating episode of guerrilla warfare unblinkingly and without sugar coating or jargon. Considered by some to be Che's best book, it is also one of the few that he had a chance to edit for publication after writing it.