


Welcome to Part Nine of Joseph Conrad's second very popular contribution to Tales for Our Time. Last night's episode - in which the cannibal crew got a little peckish after the white men threw the lads' rotting hippo meat overboard - prompted this reaction from Glen Flint, a First Fortnight Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club:
European explorer, the other white meat. A satisfying and delicious alternative to rotten hippo.
Indeed. However, in tonight's episode of Heart of Darkness, there is something more terrifying than cannibals - fog:
Keep a lookout? Well, you may guess I watched the fog for the signs of lifting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool. It felt like it, too—choking, warm, stifling. Besides, all I said, though it sounded extravagant, was absolutely true to fact. What we afterwards alluded to as an attack was really an attempt at repulse. The action was very far from being aggressive—it was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can listen to Part Nine of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
By the way, if you like the music from Tales for Our Time, you can enjoy a wide selection of it - by Brahms, Glinka, Mahler, Mussorgsky and more - here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club, now in its ninth year. Membership is available now - and, if you sign up, you'll be all set for Part Ten of Heart of Darkness this time tomorrow (and all the earlier episodes, of course). And, if you've a friend who likes classic fiction, don't forget our special Gift Membership. Oh, and aside from audio fiction, we also do video poetry.