My poor mother... she saw a book on my shelf and made the mistake of asking, "So what is Heart of Darkness about?"

And she just got an earful about Colonialism, the carving up of Africa, the Belgian Congo, framed narratives, dream genre, parallels with the Aeneid, Conrad's tri-lingual capacities, the viscous cycle of Colonialism, critiques on race, etc... all packed into a 70 page novella.