The greed and exploitation at the heart of Victorian colonisation are exposed in Joseph Conrad's powerful novella, Heart of Darkness (1902), about the rapacity of white traders' hunt for ivory in the Congo. Born in the Ukraine of Polish parents, Joseph Conrad wrote novels based on his own adventures as a merchant seaman, including The Nigger of the Narcissus, Nostromo and Lord Jim. Conrad's theme of the individual's doubt in moral certainties - such as concepts of civilisation and savagery - is characteristic of the mood of the new century.