Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jun 25, 2010

mp rated it:

It was a breathtaking read. There are few books which make such a powerful impression as 'Heart of darkness' does. Written more than a century ago, the book and its undying theme hold just as much significance even today. Intense and compelling, it looks into the darkest recesses of human nature. Conrad takes the reader through a horrific tale in a very gripping voice.

I couldn't say enough about Conrad's mastery of prose. Not a single word is out of place. Among several things, I lik More...

18 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Sonanova rated it:

Proving yet again that doing a concept first will get you immortalized, while doing it WELL will make you an unknown and forgotten writer at best, I also learned that in Conrad's time, people could drone on and on with metaphors and it wasn't considered cliched, but "art." I blame this book and others like it for some of the most painful literature created by students and professional writers alike.

It was like raking my fingernails across a chalkboard while breathing in a More...

31 comments like (63 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

Hayes added it

REVIEW FOR CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH ONLY

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes (8) versus Heart of Darkness (25)

*cue music*

C: Hobbes... where are we?
H: Africa.
C: Why?
H: Before all that smoke came out of the tape recorder the guy said that we had to knock out some guy called Kurtz and then find and save Marlow. Did you bring your little red wagon?
C: Ask a stupid question....
H: Shhhh... there's Kurtz!
C: OK... I’ll jump out More...

9 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Paul rated it:

CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH review for Round 2

**

“Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that furry visage the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror — of an intense and hopeless despair. He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—

“‘The honey! More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 02, 2009

Richard rated it:

First of all, get this straight: Heart of Darkness is one of those classics that you have to have read to consider yourself a well-educated adult. That's the bad news; the good news is that this is a very easy book to read -- tremendously shorter than Moby Dick, for instance. And the prose is easy to swallow, so you don't really have an excuse. And having watched Apocalypse Now doesn't count -- if anything, it ups the ante, since that means you have to think about the similarities and difference More...

28 comments like (54 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Sarah rated it:

Never in all my life has 100 little pages made me contemplate suicide...violent suicide. i had to finish it. i had no choice (yay college!). every page was literally painful.

am i supposed to feel sorry for him? because i don't. i feel sorry for all of Africa getting invaded with dumbasses like this guy. oh and in case you didn't get it...the "heart of darkness" is like this super deep megametaphor of all metaphors. and in case it wasn't clear enough, conrad will spen More...

12 comments like (25 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jenny rated it:

This guy's message is so subtle: Africans are depraved/we are all depraved/since I don't care about black people I'm going to let them serve as a metaphor for the depravity of human existence/I like writing sentences that yawn with the utter boredom of pretension, pomp, and waste/I have no heart/that's why I had to put the word heart in the title, etc, etc, etc.

Where's the negative one million stars option, again?

2 comments like (21 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Taka rated it:

It's OK--

This is the first time I read Conrad after hearing how much of a prose stylist he is and comparisons to Nabokov (something he himself denied with a characteristic quip, "I differ from Conradically"). He is most definitely a prose stylist of the first rank. But in this heavily symbolic book, he is not much of a storyteller. Nothing really happens in the first half. Granted, the observations Charles Marlow makes throughout are fascinating and I was floored by some of More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

George Bradford rated it:

When I was a child, my father caught me frowning at a very small gift wrapped package I'd received. The dashed hopes for a larger package were broadcast across my face.

"Dynamite comes in small packages." My father counseled me. The literal and figurative truth of this statement has revealed itself throughout my life.

This story is specifically relevant to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It is a small book. (Surprisingly small.) And it is pure dynamite. More...

1 comment like (21 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2008

Michalyn rated it:

This is a book I read twice and will probably never read again. I try to see this as a "great" novel but I have always wished Conrad had achieved a greater separation between his own voice and Marlow's. For me his inability to do so made it difficult to stomach the inherent racism in the book. The passage that will always stick out in my mind is the one in which the narrator muses that an educated black man is as "unnatural" as a dog putting on clothes and walking on its hind More...

12 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2008

Angela rated it:

This book knocked me off my feet with its weird and evil feel. It is told in an observational style that is perfect. Prior to reading Heart of Darkness, I don't think I'd ever come to terms with the murky depths humanity can sink to. It's sort of about the way a situation can corrupt a person, or an entire group. And it's so true.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Marvin rated it:

Written for the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament

I, Marlow, was recently commissioned by Christopher Robin to go into the Hundred Acre Wood to investigate the stoppage of honey exports from the area. It has been rumored that Pooh Bear has become seclusive and was possibly hoarding the honey.

I set out on the Storybook River in a rickety steamer. The trip was dangerous and arduous. At one point, we were attacked by a tribe of Oompa Oopmas who threw chocolate at us. I More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Briynne rated it:

I listened to this book in my car during my daily commute to balance out the fact that I was reading "Outlander" at home. Just to keep my literary karma on an even keel and to prevent the inevitable cognitive dissonance which would occur if I was only reading romantic fluff.

I was surprised by how much I thought this book would be better if I had read it in print, considering that it is meant to be a story the main character is telling aloud to the other people with him. More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Jess rated it:

This book was grueling the first several times I read it. It somehow turned up on the syllabus for at least 3 classes that I took, starting in high school and extending throughout college. Like a sucker, I kept re-reading it every time.

It turns out it was worth it. Normally, I'm the type of person who will force myself to finish a book that I don't really like, but will never bother picking it up again. But more than circumstance caused me to keep going at this one. There's something More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2010

Naeem rated it:

In the Western Canon, the best book I have read on colonialism. Despite what Chinua Achebe says about its racism, this is a towering achievement -- perhaps the apex of the Western canon. (It is pretty much downhill from Conrad onwards, I would say. Although Orwell's Burmese Days gets there somewhat implicitly.) It shows that it is possible to be a Westerner and have a very deep and accurate understanding of colonialism. Conrad lays bare the barbarity of modernity, especially the necessary r More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2008

Jen rated it:

The first time I read this book I was in 12th grade. I hated it at the time and since then I have read numerous reviews of its greatness. I decided to try again.

While the psychological components of the book are riveting, the overt racism that much of it is based on is hard to swallow.

Marlow speeks much of the darkness and in some ways I think he implies that Kurtz's insanity was caused by the knowledge that the natives were naturally subordinate or subservant to him be More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2008

Dave rated it:

I'm sure there are many redeeming qualities and philosophies to be absorbed from this book. However, it really is the absolutely most boring read I have ever attempted to undertake. I should probably give it another chance before condemning it to 2 stars...but, this book seriously made my mind drift away to unrelated places and topics more frequently than any other book I can remember. I would almost rather read Shakespeare backwards on a rollercoaster than pick this one up again.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2007

Izajane rated it:

I twice got an A on a paper written about how much this book sucks. The first time was in high school and the ever assigned Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. Thank the cosmic gasses that the movie is actually good or Seniors would be committing heinous wet acts of self-subterfuge in droves. But I digress...
The second was in college when I had to read this poor excuse for a novel again to compose a little Conrad/Faulkner homily. What an insult to Faulkner.

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2009

John rated it:

Morally questionable & structurally shaky, a tragic shaggy-dog story, HEART OF DARKNESS nevertheless is one of those books I just can't get beyond. Every three or four years I find myself swooning again at the redolence of its goopy roux: part exoticism, part outrage, part high drama, & no small part prophecy. Conrad never brought off a "well-made novel," though THE SECRET AGENT comes close -- while anticipating the terrorist neuroses of the century that followed (the book appeared More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2009

Daniel rated it:

Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" was one of my favorite books when I was a teenager, and I'm happy to report that after another reading a couple decades later -- at least my third time through the book -- nothing has changed. In fact, as the years wear on, parts of it seem to gain new significance. One small example I feel I could reference on almost any given day, especially those days when I'm at work, though you'd have to have read the book to understand the context:

`Do you

More...

9 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Leslie rated it:

I know as an English major I am supposed to find this work brilliant and important, but I just don't. I hate it. I hated it the first time I read it, the second time I read it, AND the third time I read it.

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Angus rated it:

Disclaimer: This is not a review. This may have spoilers. Read at your own risk. Visit original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

There are some books that I enjoyed reading but for the heart of me could not really remember. I would claim to have read them but only the vaguest things about them run through me. Coincidentally, some of these books are from the same writer. More so, these books are short works that are either long short stories or short novels. And they sa More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2011

Laysee rated it:

The Heart of Darkness is a slim novel that belies the immense profundity it reveals about human nature. I re-read it after many years and understood again why it left me sober, tearful and broken when the last page was turned. Marlow, the seaman narrator, told the story of his journey into the heart of the African interior and his encounter with the natives and most notably, Kurtz, the ivory agent, a much revered white man. To me, the journey into the heart of darkness is the unraveling of what More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2011

K.D. rated it:

This is my first time to have read a novel by Joseph Conrad and I am floored. This novel is famous for the last words uttered by the main antagonist, Mr. Krutz: "The horror! The horror!" and was made into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola and filmed partly in Pagsanjan Falls in 1979. The title of the movie was Apocalypse Now starring Marlon Brando as Krutz and Martin Sheen as Millard or Marlow in this novel. However, Coppola changed the setting from Africa to Vietnam among changes in the More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2007

Kevin rated it:

I recently read a popular author, I forget who, referring to Conrad as "the least seductive of the great writers." I think I'd have to agree, unless you force me to include Nathaniel Hawthorne or somebody as a great writer. A great work and hugely significant, one you'll be glad you read, and even find yourself talking about well after you've read it (if you didn't already before you read it - it's such a cultural touchstone it's hard to escape). Once you get into it, it is a really More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2007

Brandon rated it:

(i know! what's with all the librivox? what? can't i actually read? i can too!)

the best part about re-reading these classics is that it makes you want to watch the movie adaptation, and oh, the HORROR, heart of darkness, novella that it is, lacks the details i desperately need in a tale about human depravity in colonial africa. especially after reading moby dick, i am in no mood to fill in the flora/fauna/dragons that should play a more prominent role in a book with such a fantastic ti More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2010

Kelly rated it:

Meh. I'm sorry, but so much 'meh' on this book. I understand that the concept is fascinating, and I agree with that on some level. But I think the 'descent into darkness' story has been told much better by other people. The colonialist statement is fine, I suppose, but it's really not all that interesting. I don't think it's that well written.

A book about descent into darkness has to seduce you, make you yearn after these supposedly "evil" happenings, or people or whatever More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Bianca rated it:

It took finishing the book to like it, but I can safetly say I understand why Conrad is praised. I was forced to read it by sadists in high school, but the more I read the more I liked what was being said about the Western world in regard to those we deem inferior. The book isn't racist, as some people think, and if you finished the book and were left with the impression that the Africans were just dumped on for 100 pages then you missed the point. Conrad's narrator goes into Africa with preconc More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2008

Patrick rated it:

I think this was a little over my head, apparently Conrad spoke like a half-dozen languages so maybe I lost something in the translation because I only speak one and 1/4. I got the main themes of imperialism, racism, the thin line between civilization and barbarism, but as for any specific thing that was happening in the book while I was reading, I'm really at a loss for. I did like "Apocalypse Now" though, for what it's worth.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 09, 2010

Madeline rated it:

Confusing as hell. Just rent Apocalypse Now and pretend you read the book. Just remember to change a few details: 1) the setting is Africa, not Vietnam. 2) Kurtz is an ivory trader. He is not in the army. 3) Kurtz does not get killed; he gets sick and dies. 4) There are no puppies.
That's pretty much it.

Read for: 12th grade AP English

1 comment like (5 people liked it)