PagineFree Heart of Darkness quizzes with answers: 25 original multiple-choice questions in 7 quizzes, part-by-part, plus a Heart of Darkness summary, characters, themes, key quotes, essay questions and printable tests with answer keys. Use them as a study guide, a reading check or AP Lit / A-Level / IB revision. Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella on colonialism, studied at A-level, AP and IB alongside Chinua Achebe's critique.
AP English LiteratureA-Level English LiteratureIB English A: Literature
Content note: the novella depicts colonial brutality and uses the racist language of its period; Chinua Achebe's 1975 critique is widely taught alongside it.
Spoiler-safe reading checks: each quiz only covers its own part, with answers and explanations.
5 questions with answers · spoiler-safe
📘5 questions with answers · spoiler-safe
📘5 questions with answers · spoiler-safe
🏁10 questions with answers · whole novella
Revision quizzes that pull questions from across the whole novella (spoilers).
5 questions · Motives, relationships and how characters change.
🧭9 questions · Quick check of what happens and when.
🏆6 questions · The hardest questions — exam-style thinking.
Pick the parts you have read, the question types and difficulty — then play online or print a Heart of Darkness test with an answer key.
Aboard a ship on the Thames, Marlow tells of his journey up an African river for a Belgian trading company to find the ivory agent Kurtz. Along the way he witnesses colonial brutality and finds Kurtz ruling as a god, dying with the words 'The horror!'.
ColonialismDarkness and lightCivilisation and savageryHypocrisyTruth and liesPowerMadnessStorytelling
Short quotations from the public-domain text, with where they appear.
Exam-style essay and discussion prompts for AP Lit, A-Level, IB.
Full text in the Pagine reader
Free public-domain e-book
Free volunteer recordings
WorldCat
Henrik Ibsen · 25 questions
Mary Shelley · 75 questions
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 55 questions
William Shakespeare · 35 questions
Oscar Wilde · 25 questions
Charlotte Brontë · 60 questions
All questions are original and written for Pagine. Pagine is not affiliated with any exam board.
Aboard a ship on the Thames, Marlow tells of his journey up an African river for a Belgian trading company to find the ivory agent Kurtz. Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella on colonialism, studied at A-level, AP and IB alongside Chinua Achebe's critique.
Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, first published in 1899. It is a novella in 3 parts.
Charles Marlow, Kurtz, The manager, The Russian, Kurtz's Intended and The frame narrator.
Colonialism, Darkness and light, Civilisation and savagery, Hypocrisy, Truth and lies, Power, Madness, Storytelling.
Yes. All 25 questions are free, each with the answer and an explanation. Play online with instant feedback, or print any quiz as a test with an answer key.
The part quizzes are spoiler-safe — each one only covers its own part. The final test and the skill quizzes cover the whole novella.
Heart of Darkness is widely studied for AP English Literature, A-Level English Literature, IB English A: Literature. Reading lists vary by school and exam board, so check your own syllabus.
Heart of Darkness is in the public domain in the US: read it free in Pagine or on Project Gutenberg, or listen on LibriVox.
Yes. Print any Heart of Darkness quiz with an answer key for reading checks, homework or revision, or use “Build your own quiz” to choose parts, skills and difficulty.