Envisioning Africa

Heart of Darkness has assumed the status of a politically controversial text. It has been repudiated as racist and interpreted as an apology for imperialism and colonialism. Firchow's book successfully counters these accusations and offers a far more nuanced reading of Conrad's narrative.

~Avrom Fleishman, Johns Hopkins University

Firchow's research is exact and interesting.... Offers a cautionary note against reductive readings by demonstrating the interplay of contexts operative in all such acts of criticism.

~Canadian Review of Comparative Literature

Successfully calls into question what many interpretations of Conrad's attitudes toward racism and imperialism distort, misconstrue, or fail to take into account.

~English Literature in Transition

A thorough investigation of Heart of Darkness and its historical, cultural, and biographical context.

~Modern Fiction Studies

A work of impressive scholarship.

~Research in African Literatures

Will be essential for Conrad scholars and a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in literary polemics and/or late 19th-century European colonial activities in central Africa.

~Virginia Quarterly Review

An energetic and expansive attempt to reassess Conrad's attitudes toward race and imperialism.

~Year's Work in English Studies

Firchow's magisterial study should be required reading for everybody embroiled in the post-Achebe and heated postcolonial critical debate of the last tow decades.

~Yearbook of English Studies