Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126820 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Marlow voyages into the wildness and jungle of the Belgian Congo to meet Kurtz, a company agent, and having found him, realizes that Kurtz has won supremacy over the natives through unrestrained violence. The story explores the workings of the subconscious, and addresses political imperialism.

Customer Reviews

Hard Going
I decided to read this book after reading the End of The Affair which I love especially the internal struggles of the main characters and from what I could remember of the film I thought this book may follow the same themes.

I loved the first page as it is set very closed to where I live so I found that interesting. Also I enjoyed his arrival and commencement of his new job but then I started to loose the plot a bit. It felt a bit like there were several pages missing from my book because it jumped so much from one scene to the next. For all that it is a small book it does take some reading to get through. I am glad I managed to get to the end but I am left a bit bewildered and am tempted to read it again in the future to see if it is easier to digest the second time around.

An uphill struggle
I'd wanted to read this book for years but only got around to it this year. I confess, I wanted to do so more as a fan of 'Apocalypse Now' than as a literary buff. I chose not to read any review of it in advance, I knew it was a classic and therefore needed no justification. However...I was totally unprepared for the uphill struggle of Conrad's narration. Quite how he inspires such an obsessive following (see: josephconradsociety.org) I can not understand.

In truth I was fairly disappointed: the narrative is dull and confusing, the parallels between the darkness of Africa and the darkness in the soul of Man are not as apparent nor striking as more scholarly readers would lead you to believe.

If, like me, you feel that you owe it to yourself to find out why a particular 'literary classic' is considered to be so by reading it yourself rather than reading the Cliff Notes version, then I would recommend this version: the introduction and notes by Robert Hampton were in some instances highly educational, especially the detail regarding Henry Morton Stanley (not a nice fellow after all...).

If you read simply for enjoyment and entertainment then I suspect you may be disappointed by Heart of Darkness, but don't let that put you off, as long as you're prepared to scale a big hill.

The Engine Of Life Basks In The Recesses Of Inverted Light
Conrad's Heart Of Darkness is not an easy read. The text is dense and ornamental - suffering from frequent procrastination - but the substance and subject matter compelled me to persevere with this slim novelette. The story revolves around a sailor Marlow recounting his journey into the wilds of the Africa by river to meet Kurtz - the most successful ivory-procurement agent in the Congo. Marlow becomes obsessed with tales of the enigmatic and successful Kurtz, who seems to have more substance than all the shallow disdainful bureaucrats he encounters throughout his journey. But when he eventually discovers Kurtz, and the savage reality of his methods, it shakes Marlow's beliefs and makes him reassess his own values.

What really lets this novelette down is the fact it's supposed to be Marlow recounting a tale to a group, and the true narrator and the rest of the group are supposedly listening attentively to Marlow. But if in reality someone really spoke like this recounting a story you would lose interest because of the overly descriptive language, or you would demand the person to get to the point. No one who recounts a tale with such intricate language could expect an enthralled audience. On paper - yes, it works as you can go back and savior on the sentences, but as a spoken word tale the words would tangle together and their subtle meaning would be lost. Try reading a few pages out loud to someone you know and you'll see their interest start to waver.

Aside from the language, and its context, I felt there was something vital Conrad was striving towards here. The darkness and emptiness of soul and of society are beautifully rendered without ever becoming overtly moral or dogmatic. This is a book would read again as I feel there is so much more to discover. But I believe it is best taken on in one sitting in a setting with few distractions. An airplane companion it is not.