MR. KURTZ, I PRESUME? LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY AS PROTOTYPES OF KURTZ AND MARLOW

Abstract

The assumption that the character of Kurtz is a composite of prototypes is generally accepted by critics of Heart of Darkness.1 One of the sources suggested for Kurtz, that of David Livingstone, and an associated source for Mariow, Henry M. Stanley, deserve further attention. In his Last Essays, Conrad describes his love of geographical studies and of the explorers whose descriptions of exotic places had formed indelible images in his imagination. Livingstone had left a particularly deep impression: