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Dec 17, 2009

Rachel rated it:

read this book for the first time in high school. we explored the novella from the perspective of a young adventurer wandering into the congo...hated it
read it in my death in lit class...provoked some interesting discussions on race...still hated it
read it again for brit lit...talked again about race and imperialism and my professor was so awesome i almost enjoyed the book for a smidgen of a second...but no.

rivets rivets rivets...boring boring boring...this 75 page novell More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Chase rated it:

The book is so short but I promise it will take you FOREVER to read this thing. Was it a good book? Yes it was. Why the 2 stars? If it takes that long to finish then it obviously coulnd't have been all that great.

Symbolism? Yes. Tons of symbolism. I guess you could say that McCarthy is sort of like him in some small way. However, McCarthy is much more enjoyable to read.

I would like to say though that on a personal note that I have visited where they actually f More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2008

Judy rated it:

Joseph Conrad makes me think of a Edgar Allen Poe on serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. (Although he is said to have attempted suicide in his late teens so he couldn't have been all that jolly) Most say his writing is dark but I find it funny. Bless my soul! By jove!

What makes me think of Poe is the narrative which is like a constant paranoid obsessive-compulsive interior chatter. But I love the way the characters are outwardly totally in control and collected.

" More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Mark rated it:

Just fantastic. Not that anything less from Conrad was expected. But regard for something special should never be taken for granted, nor should it be deprived of its appropriate kudos when time allows.

Masterful narrative. Better than average characters. An amazing story of a place that time may always forget.

I find it funny that many critics cite Conrad's "racism" in regard to the African natives.

For one, frankly, criticizing someone from that era More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2007

Steve added it

Apocalypse Now is my favorite film and it is an excellent adaptation of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I've seen the movie around 80 times and have read the novella at least 12 times. It is a powerful examination of the fine line between civilization and madness and what these things mean to the soul of the individual. In many cases the so-called civilized characters are the most decadent and debased. The story works on you on a subtle but powerful level. A must read for any age.

A side More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

RussBear rated it:

The horror! The horror!

I never understood exactly why this book has been termed a classic and why we still torture school children with it.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Rosemarie rated it:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad would have to be one of the most complicated books I have ever read so far. I would have to be honest and say that the vocabulary used is advanced and I did have to reread pages a few times to remember what I was reading/understand. At times during the book I had no idea what was going on which made me reread over again. This book was challenging and is good at some points. Througout the book a character called Marlow is on a journey to find Kurtz. This b More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Tyler rated it:

The story begins with Marlow telling the story of Kurtz, with his disappearance, and how he became a God-like King for the African people in the jungle of the "dark" continent.
The novel itself bored me, since there was barely any "real" action. Though it dragged on for me, anyone may read this and end with deeper analysis of the story. Some may agree with Chinua Achebe and state that Heart of Darkness consists of racism, as the people are primitive, but also compared to More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Caleb rated it:

I recently read the "Heart of Darkness" portion of the book for my High School AP English class. Overall, I would have to agree with the majority of other reviewers here in saying that this book WAS BORING! Unlike many of my peers, I DO read for pleasure and know a good book when I read one. I'm not lying when I say that I thought that the writing was actually very good. However, the overall storyline was mediocre at best. Yeah, sure, metaphors and a deeper meaning, and all that, blah More...

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Dec 14, 2011

Ogwen rated it:

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Heart of Darkness is not the heads on pikes or almost hallucinatory insights into the nature of evil but the fact that the novel was, in essence, the distillation of real events that Conrad had witnessed or heard about during his eight years working as a steamboat captain in the Congo.
The narrator Marlow, of course, was Conrad's alter ego. Kurz, according to Adam Hochschild in King Leopold's Ghost was modeled on Captain Léon Rom, a station chief at St More...

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Apr 29, 2011

Salwa rated it:

“The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinsh More...

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Apr 27, 2011

Josh rated it:

It took me ten years to finally read "Heart of Darkness" and I'm so happy I have. Conrad's grasp of core human similarity regardless of race and culture is kind of mind blowing given the era he was working in. Apparently some have called his depiction of tribal Africans in the colonial era racist, but I found it to be anything but wise and so much more than sympathetic. If he merely elicited pity for their plight in his reader, then his would be an attitude of condescension and therefo More...

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Apr 09, 2009

Lori rated it:

I was forced to read these two stories in senior year literature. I distinctly remembered my friend and I rolling our eyes at each from across the room as the teacher tore the book apart for symbolism and depth of meaning when all we wanted to do was READ it. Every now and then I was able to pull some random pithy sentiment out of where ever those things come from -- but I didn't remember one thing about the book except that it involved a river, a nut, and Apocalypse Now was based on it.
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2010

Jacob rated it:

I had a really hard time with this book, even though it wasn't very long. First of all, the constant use of quotation mark (it's a frame story) annoyed me. In addition, the prose wasn't particularly awesome. Sure, there were a couple passages that were memorable, but, on the whole, I wasn't impressed. As for the story, it's about a sailor going up a river in Africa to meet the god-like "Mistah Kurtz." This journey, of course, is a metaphor for a journey into the human soul. I read this More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 19, 2010

Felix rated it:

Everyone talks about Heart of Darkness, and not just Apocalypse Now fans. Sooner or later I had to read it so I could get in on all those 'depths of the soul' analogies one hears everywhere. Sadly, I couldn't quite get a grip on the actual source material - I can partly blame the astonishingly loud Hindipop blasting away right next to my hotel room in Gorakhpur for that, but I also point the finger at Conrad's unrelenting sombre introspection and the way the entire story is told through nested q More...

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Nov 26, 2008

Thomas rated it:

This book was an all-around good book. The intro was very detailed, but could confuse some readers with the vocabulary. This book is for the higher level readers that are able to comprehend the words and metaphors. For example, in the beginning I had trouble with it and didnt know if he was in Britan or the Congo. Joseph Conrad has an interesting way of using insanity to suit a certain event in the book. For example when Captain Marlow is waiting on the ship. He says that he is waiting, and the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2007

Heidi rated it:

I believe the book's tagline says it all: "The horror, the horror."

I hated this book. HATED. I remember one day when I had done my reading section for English class, not understood a thing, except that they were on a boat and things were happening. Maybe they were being attacked. But in class we kept talking about the man in pink pajamas. I didn't remember any mention of pink pajamas. I could barely force my eyes continue reading the words on the page.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 04, 2010

Jeff rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 07, 2009

Christina rated it:

I definitely liked it/understood it better the second time around. Especially when read in the "psychological novel" perspective. The Secret Sharer was hardly the "piece of crap" I had pegged it for back in 12th grade. It's actually a very insightful story about a man who learns who he really is by watching and admiring the actions of another man, a stranger, a mirror-image of himself. He is motivated to change his own life by watching and wishing he could be like his mirror- More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 06, 2010

Robert rated it:

Required high school reading. Oddly did ok in the class. It seems I did really had no idea what is really going on here yet was able to extract what was required to get the requisite "A" grade. For example, I really did not get the historical and political significance of the Belgian Congo at all. I later learned was a large scale mass murder, purely for profit without any significant ideology unlike later examples. See King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Duy rated it:

Joseph Conrad is an English novelist, who was born in Poland, during the chaotic uprisings around the country. Many of his works revolve around the theme depicting the human morality versus duties and honors and the struggles that take place in between. After leaving Poland, he became a traveler, living on the seas. Joseph’s adventurous life solidifies his understandings of the struggles facing his characters, in works such as The Arrow of Gold, Nostromo. In 1889, Joseph became a captain of a Co More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Veronica rated it:

Visions from Apocalypse Now swirled steadily in my head whilst I read Heart of Darkness and when the much sought after Kurtz exclaimed, “The horror! The horror!”, I had my suspicions put to rest. I must plead ignorance here as I was unaware that Coppola did indeed base his film on Conrad’s novella.

Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in what is hailed by many as a work of art. Ironically, upon embarking upon Conrad’s Nostromo, I feared a book like this; a seafarer’s adventure, y More...

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Aug 03, 2007

MacK rated it:

Perhaps this is unfair because I only made it through "The Secret Sharer" before plopping the book down with a satisfied "well that was every bit as pretentious as I thought it would be."

Maybe "Heart of Darkness" is the brilliant piece everyone says it is, all I know is that after 50 pages of Conrad's tediously detailed prose I needed a palate cleanser and had to reread part of Harry Potter #7 to get it.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Naurin rated it:

Joseph Conrad did a real wonderful job on this book. This book was a challenging book and it was pretty tough for me to comprehend it so I had to reread it over and over again. However I liked the challenge. But next time, maybe Joseph Conrad can make the text a little bit more simple to comprehend. I think the darkness within us and how Joseph Conrad explained the assimilation was excellent. It helped me explain that a lot of things in life, won't go the way you expect it to go. My favorite par More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2010

Daniel2 rated it:

I'm a little torn on this one. Clearly,Conrad is a capable writer. Not entirely compelling, but skilled in the art of penned language.

The book was a lot of waiting for something to happen. (I know most see it as a social commentary, which it is not, so please do not think I missed the point of any authorial intention.) The only person I wanted to know about was Kurtz and damn it if I got nothing but a maniac on his death bed.

Conrad's language is beautiful and thankfully More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Haley rated it:

I won't lie: when my AP English teacher started passing out copies of this little relic in class, I groaned internally. I had long heard rumors of how dense the language in this compact, 100-page novella could be.

The first reading assignment was torture- I couldn't get any hold on the setting, plot, or any of the characters- until we got to Marlow's narration. It still wasn't the easiest thing to read, but at least it was understandable.

Eventually, I started getting a li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Jaime rated it:

When my English teacher announced that Joseph Conrad had learned English from a grammar book, it didn't bode well. This is one of those books that I had to read and absolutely hated. There aren't many. Usually I am just disappointed, or ambivalent. But I hated this one. The Secret Sharer is a useless little story about a man that sneaks aboard a ship at sea and is hidden there by his doppelganger. I'm sure there's some deep meaning or metaphor here that I am missing (my teacher would proba More...

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Aug 29, 2011

Matthew rated it:

Just finished the Secret Sharer. It was ok, very psychologically focused and an interesting take on the Jungian idea of the shadow self or the double. Part of why I found this interesting was the subtle message was that if one can either let go of that self, or integrate him (I think Conrad left it open to interpretation) one will become better accepted by those around us. The question of course is at what price does that occur.

Heart of Darkness - This is a tough read. Reading the cri More...

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May 01, 2010

Erik rated it:

We were assigned Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim in our senior AP literature class in high school. I much preferred the former even though I knew only generalities about the European exploitation of Africa and virtually nothing about the example of the Belgian Congo--an instance of exploitation without sanctimonious justifications in terms of "civilizing missions" and the like. We did have The Secret Sharer assigned and I frankly cannot recall reading it.

In 1979 F More...

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Oct 01, 2010

Mark rated it:

Took awhile to get into this; hard not to picture lots of Apocalypse Now.

Fun quotes:
""It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole t More...

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