Just ahead of Episode Thirteen of Heart of Darkness, thank you again for your kind comments about this caper and our other Tales for Our Time. Pat Smith, a Pennsylvania Steyn Clubber, agrees with fellow members:
I'm also thoroughly enjoying your reading of Heart of Darkness especially the French accents. This is my first endeavor into Tales for Our Time but it certainly won't be my last.
Welcome aboard, Pat. There are seventy-one predecessor Tales just a-waiting for you.
In tonight's installment of Joseph Conrad's classic, our protagonist passes a disturbed night at the ruined trading-station:
On the hill a big fire burned, illuminating fitfully a crooked corner of the station-house. One of the agents with a picket of a few of our blacks, armed for the purpose, was keeping guard over the ivory; but deep within the forest, red gleams that wavered, that seemed to sink and rise from the ground amongst confused columnar shapes of intense blackness, showed the exact position of the camp where Mr Kurtz's adorers were keeping their uneasy vigil. The monotonous beating of a big drum filled the air with muffled shocks and a lingering vibration. A steady droning sound of many men chanting each to himself some weird incantation came out from the black, flat wall of the woods as the humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had a strange narcotic effect upon my half-awake senses. I believe I dozed off leaning over the rail, till an abrupt burst of yells, an overwhelming outbreak of a pent-up and mysterious frenzy, woke me up in a bewildered wonder... I glanced casually into the little cabin. A light was burning within, but Mr Kurtz was not there.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Thirteen of Heart of Darkness simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For more details, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. I'll be hosting Part Fourteen of Heart of Darkness right here tomorrow evening.