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Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

24 reviews
Sales Rank: 370

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.4

ISBN: 0140620486
EAN: 9780140620481
ASIN: 0140620486

Publication Date: April 28, 1994
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Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 24

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Over-hyped, decidedly mediocre December 10, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful

I wasn't quite sure what the fuss was about. I didn't find the book to be particularly readable and though there were moments which were well written and interesting, on the whole I thought it was a rather standard book. Worth, reading, if only to understand the numerous references that people draw from it. But very mediocre in my opinion.

3 out of 5 stars

Not my cup of tea December 6, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful

This novel is often regarded as a classic. I studied it for my third year English course. Although it addresses plenty of interesting themes, as a novel for reading, it's pretty tough. There are no chapters t help separate your reading, and the pace is generally quite slow except for a few scenes in the middle of the novel. The language is slightly tougher too.

I didn't enjoy reading it, but I did enjoy studying the themes and how they relate.

5 out of 5 stars

A fearsome journey October 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

"Heart of Darkness" is by no means an easy novel, nor a pretty one but in its hundred or so pages it contains more insights, deeply disturbing ones at that, than your average novel in a thousand pages. The voyage upstream of the narrator to find the enigmatic Mr. Kurtz becomes a voyage into the darkest corners of the human heart. Not a pleasant journey, but one with important lessons for each and everyone of us. Once you've read it, you'll never forget it.

1 out of 5 stars

What?! June 30, 2006
10 out of 46 found this review helpful

Style - 1/5
Plot - 2/5
Readability - 1/5

I honestly can't see why people find this story so fascinating! It found it very tedious and boring to the point where I was seriously thinking about not finishing it. However, as it was such a short work I carried on.

This was the first of Joseph Conrad's works that I had read and nearly gave up on him as an author and dearly hoped that the rest of his stories weren't so slow paced. I have since read some of his other works and and I'm relieved to find that some of them are really very enjoyable, such as Typhoon. But, sorry, don't see what the big deal is about this one.

5 out of 5 stars

A fictional account of the novelist's experience in Africa April 22, 2006
15 out of 24 found this review helpful

The story is that of a group of men aboard the Nellie, among them the anonymous narrator, who are told Marlow's experience in the Congo in the 1890s. Marlow's career, like Conrad's, spans an important period in the history of relations between Europe and Africa. The author's purpose is to show that the "civilising" mission actually reveals the "darkness" at its own heart instead of bringing light into the darkness as it claims.
In 1890 Conrad was appointed to the Congo by the Societe Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce and in June that year he reached Kinshasa, the Central Station in "Heart of Darkness". But soon the idealised realities of a boy's dreams were replaced by "the distasteful knowledge of the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience and geographical exploration" (in "Last Essays").
Thus Marlow's journey to the Congo becomes a moral journey in which he confronts the workings of colonialism and his account is a frame-tale with inset stories, a so-called "oblique narration" - a tale within another tale. The darkness of Marlow's expedition is enhanced by the fact that his quest for Kurz contains repeated references to the latter's "eloquence" and "gift of expression" thus promising to articulate the solution to the moral and philosophical problems that the journey has created. Marlow's encounter with Kurz is a bitter disappointment with its "desolate exclamations, shrugs, hints ending in sighs".
Although Conrad shows the criminality of inefficiency and selfishness of Europeans when dealing with the civilising work of Africa, the narrative is not gloomy. Kurz himself is merely a victim of the discourse of imperialism and his break-up shows how damaging it is for both Africans and Europeans.
Another aspect in Conrad's novel is the stereotypical representation of women and the exclusion of the female reader. This is shown in Kurz's last words before dying: "The horror! The horror!" which refer to his Intended!