Daily puzzle

Put Heart of Darkness back in order

Seven beats from our edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, shuffled. Drag them, or use the arrows, until the story runs straight. No account, no streak to lose.

  1. On the Thames At nightfall on a yawl anchored in the Thames estuary, an unnamed narrator introduces Marlow, who begins his story by musing that this too has been one of the dark places of the earth.
  2. The Company Marlow signs on with a Belgian ivory company in a sepulchral city, is examined by a doctor, and sails to Africa, already uneasy at the venture’s grim aura.
  3. Waste and cruelty At the first station he sees abandoned machinery, a chain gang of starved laborers, and the grove of death, alongside an immaculate company accountant who first names Kurtz.
  4. Delay and intrigue His steamer lies wrecked at the bottom of the river. Marlow spends months on repairs amid scheming managers and hollow men, hearing ever more about the remarkable Kurtz.
  5. Into the interior The patched steamer pushes up the river through fog and attack. Marlow’s helmsman is killed by a spear as the boat nears Kurtz’s Inner Station.
  6. The man revealed Marlow finds Kurtz dying, idolized by the local people, his station ringed with severed heads. The eloquent idealist has descended into tyranny and self-worship.
  7. Return and the Intended Kurtz dies whispering The horror, the horror. Home in Europe, Marlow visits the Intended and lies, saying Kurtz spoke her name, sparing her the truth.