'Heart of Darkness' - Deep Wood Press

Take a look at this beautiful edition of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', illustrated by Marc Castelli:

Published by Deep Wood Press, this book won the University of Texas's Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design, 2010, and it's easy to see why.  The binding is richly textured and beautifully detailed:

"Full goatskin binding with calf onlays in debossed panels depicting images from within the book. Enclosed in a drop spine box with an extra folio of prints from the book."

The illustrator is Marc Castelli., an artist who's life and work has been steeped in maritime culture.  His lifetime love of boats and the water clearly made him a perfect choice for illustrating this classic novel.

~ "Published with 36 original drawings by renowned maritine artist Marc Castelli, this limited edition of Heart of Darkness summons us to listen to Marlow's story which echoes even today."



The publication was a collaboration between Deep Wood Press and Chester River Press.  More information and more detailed images of the book can be seen at this Deep Wood Press page.

For those who haven't read it (and no, watching 'Apocalypse Now' doesn't quite count), here is more about the book from Deep Wood's page:

"Joseph Conrad's masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, continues to ignite the interest of readers and literary scholars alike.

The simple story of a sea-captain hired by Belgian colonial ivory merchants to search the Congo River for a disaffected company employee turned pathological demigod becomes as deeply a sympolic and frightening descent into the maelstrom of moral consequence as Dante's expedition through Hell.

If there is a moral compass to be discovered within its pages it is to be found spinning between the cardinal points of avarice, genocide, values and conscience as Marlow steams deeper into the darkness of the jungle and the core of the human psyche in his search for the enigmatic Kurtz."