Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

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Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

by Joseph Conrad, A. Michael Matin (Introduction)

3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 · rating details · 9,956 ratings · 291 reviews

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction, by Joseph Conrad, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classicsseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

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paper, 261 pages

Published September 1st 2003 by Barnes & Noble Classics (first published 1899)

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May 24, 2012 Patrick rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Patrick by: Jeremy Andriano

Shelves: 2008

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.

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Dec 11, 2007 Mikhail rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who are ready for a heavy read from a dense writer.

Shelves: books

What a thick little book. I have to say when I first started reading this book back in my freshman year of high school, I hated this book and was quickly bored with it after ten pages. I put it down and gave up on it. Part of the reasn is because I read the short story in front of it and that WAS indeed mind-numbingly boring so I didn't expect anything different from Heart of Darkness.

Now five years have passed and I really enjoy this book. It's just as dense as I remember it, but I definitely...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Graham rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, literature

While I know and can appreciate that this book is considered a classic by many, it's not my cup of tea. I'm a guy who likes good, solid fiction, based on physical principles. HEART OF DARKNESS is the opposite: metaphysical, spiritual and dwelling on concepts and themes rather than a more reality-based narrative.

At its worst, this is a string of metaphors and imagery, linked by a light plot that doesn't go very far. Conrad visited the locales he writes about, and there is certainly local flavour...more

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May 24, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, classics, modern-librarys-100-best-novels, modern-classic, literary-fiction, 19th-century

When you think of books required to consider yourself ‘well read’ one book that is often in that list is Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I’ve been told that watching Apocalypse Now doesn’t count; but if you have read and seen the movie, fun can be found spotting the similarities. Heart of Darkness is a difficult book to read but if you stick with it, there is a certain elegance in the novel, as well as the fact it’s heavily symbolic.

One of the more interesting aspects of this novel is the nar...more

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Mar 11, 2012 William rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: his-fiction, paperback

It is hard to explain what I thought of this novel. I will do my best to decipher how I feel in a much more concise manner than Conrad himself would have.
This short book, a novella at best, is divided into 3 parts. Part one finds Marlow, our principal narrator, on a boat on the River Thames talking about his experiances in the Congo and how he was previously employed by a trading company to recover some ivory, and more importantly, an exceptional trader by the name of Kurtz. This first part was...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Mark Lawrence rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this a long time ago, and then again this weekend, and realised that I remembered maybe 5% of it. It's perhaps not that surprising because the existential meandering dominates the actual events, and many of the those events involve lying around being too hot, too sweaty, and too sick, just waiting. That's unfair - events do unfold, characters are met, unpleasantness witnessed, at at the creshendo, blood is spilled. The pace, however, is slow. Nineteenth century slow. Dickens sprints by co...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Fraser Kinnear rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, ugliness, english

There are 4 stories in this book: "An Outpost of Progress", "Karain: A Memory", "Youth: A Narrative", and "Heart of Darkness". My favorites were Outpost and Heart of Darkness. This may actually be because I'm writing these notes soon after finishing Heart of Darkness, which has put me in a much different mood than after finishing Youth.

I took these stories as reflections upon travel. Outpost and Heart in particular considering the darker and more difficult side you must manage when you travel wi...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A group of men are aboard an English ship that is sitting on the Thames. The group includes a Lawyer, an Accountant, a Company Director/Captain, and a man without a specific profession who is named Marlow. The narrator appears to be another unnamed guest on the ship. While they are loitering about, waiting for the wind to pick up so that they might resume their voyage, Marlow begins to speak about London and Europe as some of the darkest places on earth. The narrator and other guests do not seem...more

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May 24, 2012 Justin Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I read HoD in high school, and mainly remembered that my teacher went to great lengths to make us understand the absurdity of all existence etc etc... Then I talked about it in college, and mainly remember Theorists going to great lengths to make me understand the immorality of writing about Africans if you're not and African etc etc... And I just re-read it as a nearly thirty year old and thought: what's all the fuss about? It's straightforwardly an anti-imperialistic squib. Not the greatest sh...more

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Mar 17, 2009 Chory rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-for-school, man-fiction

"Racism Couched in a Critique of Racism"
Certainly it was relevant in 1977 for a black African man with a “western” education to offer criticism of the dominant paradigm of the “western,” “white” status-quo; however, in his article “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Chinua Achebe entirely misses the mark. His assertion is, essentially, that given the novel’s having not been written in the latter half of the twentieth century with the bleeding-heart sensibilities of a “whi...more "Racism Couched in a Critique of Racism"
Certainly it was relevant in 1977 for a black African man with a “western” education to offer criticism of the dominant paradigm of the “western,” “white” status-quo; however, in his article “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Chinua Achebe entirely misses the mark. His assertion is, essentially, that given the novel’s having not been written in the latter half of the twentieth century with the bleeding-heart sensibilities of a “white” man of that time, it is, therefore, inherently racist and seeks to hold up all of Africa as a “foil to Europe […:] in comparison with which Europe’s […:] spiritual grace will be manifest.” (337) Achebe’s evidence of this is tenuous at best, and often hinges on logical fallacy, blatant misrepresentation of Conrad’s text, or wild postulation and slander. To this end, I will (as I have done above) include my additions to the text (both his and Conrad’s), as well as omissions from it, in brackets—something Achebe has failed to do in order to further his effort to distort Conrad’s meaning and pervert an English language classic. I assert (and seek to prove) that, to quote himself, “my observations should be quite clear […:], namely that [Chinua Achebe:] was a thoroughgoing racist.” (343)
Firstly, to deal with Achebe’s distortion and misrepresentation of the text: Achebe distorts Conrad’s prose through skillful lies of omission: “Herein lies the meaning of Heart of Darkness and the fascination it holds over the Western mind: ‘What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours….Ugly.’” (339) What Achebe omits is Conrad’s insistence of kinship and similarity: the real quote reads “[…:]humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough, but if you were man enough you would admit […:] a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you […:] could comprehend.” [my emphasis:] (339) Conrad’s insistence is not on Africans as Achebe’s “just limbs or rolling eyes,” (340) but as human beings, who—though their customs, beliefs, societies, and even their skin may not look like our (European) own—are more like us than we (European denizens of the 19th century) would like to perhaps admit. Achebe’s willful ignorance to these facts, his deliberate misrepresentation of the text, and his refusal to accept historical perspective speak not to Conrad’s racism, or even the insidious racism of Victorian Europe, but to Achebe’s own racist-ly preconceived notion that all “white,” “western” men are inherently racist and anti-Africa.
Achebe seems unaware that a work (or a quote) exists within a context, and that outside of that context it has little meaning. Out-of-context quotation is a hallmark of his efforts here. Twice in the article he employs secondary sources, one of which is actually a third-hand quote of Conrad stripped of all relevance in order to serve Achebe’s racist purpose: “His own account of his first encounter with a black man is very revealing: ‘A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterward.’ Certainly Conrad had a problem with niggers. His inordinate love of that word itself should be of interest […:]” (344-5) Firstly to deal with the word “nigger:” The word was the accepted English language descriptor for people of black African descent no matter where they existed in the world (from the dark heart of Africa to the white halls of London) at the time in which Conrad lived. To take issue with Conrad’s use of nigger in his own time is an idiotic argument; the same could be done with Achebe’s libelous uses of “western” and “white” as indictments of racist guilt in all people who could be so described. One must look with unclouded eyes, instead, at the essential language of the sentence, this “blind, furious, unreasoning rage” is not a characteristic of blacks or Haitians, or any other subset of humanity, but (in Conrad’s grammatical construction) of “the human animal,” a universal observation. That this man in Haiti was a “nigger” is wholly irrelevant, he could as easily have been an enraged Scotsman…the observation (and its universal nature in Conrad’s experience of it) remains true. Secondly, to deal with Achebe’s quotation of Bernard C. Meyer: he quotes Meyer as saying that Conrad was “‘notoriously inaccurate in the rendering of his own history,’” (346) Achebe seems here to have missed the fact that Heart of Darkness is a work of novelistic fiction, and not a part of Conrad’s memoirs. Conrad is not (!) Marlow (though Marlow’s travels may have been informed by Conrad’s own—one is inclined, as they say, to “write what you know”) and therefore the moral decisions which Marlow makes (or the allegedly immoral suppositions he has) are not Conrad’s, but his own; just as Steven King’s writing of serial-killers does not make him the very same. Further, Meyer’s quote, again, lacks any form of contextual reference back to either Conrad or Marlow, and is, therefore, presented in the form of logical fallacy: post hoc ergo proctor hoc—Conrad has been wrong in the past, so he must always be wrong.
When Achebe rants, “as though we might expect a black figure striding along on black legs to wave white arms!” in response to Conrad’s repetitive descriptive use of the term black in the sentence “A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving black arms,” (345) he undermines the use of descriptive language and seems to miss a central tenant of descriptive writing (although he uses the words “white” and “western” many dozens of times in his article to the same end, forcing their belaboured repetition herein). Albeit, Conrad is beating us over the head with blackness, but that assertion is not inherently racist; it is merely observational, Marlow recognizing the difference (the otherness) of the people of the Congo. To deny them their blackness (to engage in the bleeding-heart “I don’t see colour” assertion) is far more racist in its denial of race—and accompanying racial experience—than any simple acknowledgment of race could ever be. However, it would seem that Achebe prefers the appearance of racial integration to any real discussion of it. One cannot dialogue about racial issues while denying the existence of race! The thought is absolutely absurd and belittles the experience of “others” in their “otherness.”
Achebe makes two direct comparisons of Conrad to historical figures. One is to Marco Polo, the other Adolf Hitler in a section redacted eleven years after his initial release of the critique (or, rather, artists who worked in Nazi occupied Germany during the war; Achebe’s misunderstanding—or intentional misrepresentation of [see below:]—historic fact makes the distinction irrelevant). In comparing Conrad to Marco Polo, Achebe uses the term xenophobia, almost libelously. He asserts that Marco Polo was xenophobic for not recognizing the Chinese accomplishments of the printing-press and the architectural wonder of the Chinese Great Wall in his writings on his travels. Oddly—and uncharacteristically—Achebe includes a concession to reality here (perhaps because he is not out to directly attack Marco Polo) in admitting the possibility that the voyager may never have encountered either technological wonder in his time in China. The assertion that the Great Wall “is visible from the moon!” (347) verges on insanity; who ever thought Marco Polo traveled to the moon? Is Achebe insinuating that because Polo failed to do so he is inherently xenophobic and racist? The inclusion of this information verges on a straw-man logical fallacy, except that Achebe does not seem to be hinting at anything beyond it. Instead, he maintains that both Polo and Conrad are “unload[ing:] physical and moral deformities [onto Africa/China:] so that [they:] may go forward, erect and immaculate.” (348) How two individual men representing a society as diverse as the nations of Europe could do this is entirely beyond my comprehension.
In equating Conrad with “All those men of Nazi Germany who lent their talent to virulent racism,” and asserting that “poetry surely can only be on the side of man’s deliverance […:] and against the doctrines of Hitler’s master races or Conrad’s ‘rudimentary souls,’” (footnote, 344) Achebe misses the reality that there were no mechanisms within the Nazi machine to create any form of art. Instead, artists had to appeal to a censorship board with whatever they created. Achebe here attempts to remove any form of personal responsibility for one’s creation, and instead assert that merely being white (or Germanic) makes one a racist (or anti-Semitic). Achebe’s implication that all Germanic people during the war period were Nazis is in itself a racist assertion which undermines his point (but illustrates mine brilliantly!). He also asserts himself as the ultimate moral judge of the validity of all art, insisting that the artist who creates art which he (Achebe) does not like “is no more a great artist than another may be called a priest who reads the mass backwards.” (footnote, 344) Achebe’s essential assertion, the linch-pin upon which the weight of his entire argument hangs, is that Conrad’s European-ness leaves in him a “residue of antipathy to black people.” (344)
Chinua Achebe’s critique of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is as far off the mark as would be an assertion by this author that the novella is hetero-sexist and homophobic because it does not include a gay character, and fails to imply homo-eroticism in the relationship between Marlow and Kurtz (or Kurtz and the Russian, or Marlow and his shipmates—all apt opportunities). Simply turning Achebe’s argument on its head (there remains in Achebe’s attitude a residue of antipathy toward white people) illustrates the absurdity of it. His logical errors, denial of historical context (and therefore appropriate behaviour in a character), insistence of his own moral superiority, and placement of himself as ultimate judge of artistic value, work to wholly undermine his argument and, except in the eyes of the most racist individual (or most bleeding-heart, white-guilt, squish-brained “liberal”), place his critique soundly in the moral rubbish-bin along with the ravings of The Reverend Wright and Jerry Falwell.(less)

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Apr 23, 2010 umberto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I've read this fairly short novel praised on its back cover in the Oxford World's Classics as "The finest of all Conrad's tales," some three or four years ago and found it a bit tough. This novel's not easy to understand since Marlow, the chief character, enmeshed by the mystery and menace along his dangerous journey up the Congo River to relieve the formidable Mr Kurtz finally made his encounter with him. However, I found it enjoyable and kept reading it till the end.
I know he's long been rega...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, literature, classics

Loads of boring details, not quite enough story.

While it was interesting to read Conrad's take on the exploitation of the African subcontinent and the treatment of the native peoples during the colonial era, this book failed to live up to its legendary reputation as a literary classic. The story moved ploddingly slow at times, getting mired down in mundane details and unimportant tangents, while at other times it would fast forward through events.

I actually found Conrad's short story "Youth" (...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Shiloh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Shiloh by: Mike Start

Shelves: african-reads, classics

This book was the Heart of Darkness story, plus Youth, Amy Foster, and the Secret Sharer short stories by Joseph Conrad. I read the Heart of Darkness first because I was most curious about the narrative as it was loosely based on his own travels in the Congo during the 1800's during the Belgian colonialization. As the introduction attests, the broad strokes with wich the story is painted made it a bit difficult for first time readers to follow the plot. It often changes time or setting without l...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Sharon T rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read this novella three times in my life -- once in college, once for a book group, and once for my work as a writing coach and tutor. Each time, I've discovered something different in the work (the joys of re-reading!). Upon this last effort -- and it is an effort -- I found I especially appreciated its character development, pacing (especially the seemingly interminable Chapter One), and fevered, oblique, imprecise language. A book I love? No. A book I'm glad I've had the occasion to re-r...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Tj Covey rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I believe that the author’s purpose in writing Heart of Darkness was to demoralize imperialism. Conrad, the story’s author, points out flaws in imperialism such as the mistreatment of the natural resources and the native people. I do not believe that the author did a very good job of getting his message across. While the author presents several reasons why imperialism was wrong, he never presents anything in the text to suggest an alternative to this system.
I believe that the theme of Heart o...more I believe that the author’s purpose in writing Heart of Darkness was to demoralize imperialism. Conrad, the story’s author, points out flaws in imperialism such as the mistreatment of the natural resources and the native people. I do not believe that the author did a very good job of getting his message across. While the author presents several reasons why imperialism was wrong, he never presents anything in the text to suggest an alternative to this system.
I believe that the theme of Heart of Darkness is the hypocrisy of imperialism. One of the supposed purposes of imperialism was to help civilize the native people, but usually countries just used the exotic locations for business. Often they abused the natives rather than help them. The book explores these issues surrounding imperialism as Marlow, the protagonist, travels up the Congo River, a Belgian territory. Here he witnesses torture, cruelty, and the near-slavery of the native people. Even the reason behind Marlow going the Congo can be considered hypocritical. The men who work for the company that employs Marlow describe their work as “trade”, and they claim that their treatment of the natives is part of “civilizing” them. The story’s antagonist, Kurtz, is more open about the fact that he does not really trade but actually takes ivory by force. Also, he calls his treatment of the native people “suppression” and “extermination”. His honesty eventually leads to his downfall, as the company feels it is a threat to their business and may expose the evil practices of Europeans in Africa. Many of the Europeans did not even see the natives as people but more as objects. Marlow describes his helmsman as a piece of machinery and Kurt’z mistress as a mere statue. Another issue that is much less obvious than the open abuse of the natives by Kurtz or the company’s men is that the natives become a backdrop for Marlow. Marlow allows the struggles of the natives to take a backseat to his physical and psychological issues. Conrad presents a very interesting paradox to prove his point in the story. This paradox is that the “savages” display amazing restraint when faced with temptation, but restraint is exactly what the “civilized” Europeans lack.
I believe the author’s style was a narration. Heart of Darkness was a very unique narration. The main story, Marlow’s narration, is framed by another narration by one of Marlow’s listeners. This narrator, who is unnamed, speaks in the first person plural. He describes what all of Marlow’s listeners feel and think. I think that this was a very effective way of telling the story. The unanimous reactions by Marlow’s listeners to Marlow’s story and his beliefs make it easy for readers to get an impression of what the conventional perspectives and values of British society were at the time the novel was published. They can also see that Marlow set himself apart from these usual standards, and that he poses very unique beliefs. When the listeners question the truthfulness of Marlow’s story, readers can infer that not all Europeans were aware of the horrors that went on in some of the European territories.
I did not like reading Heart of Darkness at all. The only thing that I liked about the book was that it was short. There was almost no action in the book, and it seems very repetitive. Most of the book just talks about navigating up the Congo River. It seems like the rest of the book is minor characters giving their opinions on Kurtz, which all appear to be the same. It was very slow paced, and despite its short length it seemed to take forever to read. Like I said earlier, almost nothing happens in the book, and it seems to repeat itself. This combination made it seem like you were reading the same passage over and over again. Another thing I disliked was that I felt that the author did not develop the character Kurtz well enough. Every character seems to have some story or opinion about Kurtz, but despite this I still feel like I have no clue who he is. If I could change one thing about the story I would add more action to it. I have never read a story like Heart of Darkness, and I hope that I never read anything like it again.
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Jun 18, 2012 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book's status in the Western canon - for those of us who still believe in the Western canon - has been hotly debated because of the book's implied racism. The book is a story within the story; a group of men sit awake throughout the night on a ship anchored on the Thames listening to a man named Marlowe recount his experiences as a steamboat captain on the Congo River. As night deepens, Marlowe's story becomes darker and darker. He tells how the Belgian Free State (modern Democratic Republi...more This book's status in the Western canon - for those of us who still believe in the Western canon - has been hotly debated because of the book's implied racism. The book is a story within the story; a group of men sit awake throughout the night on a ship anchored on the Thames listening to a man named Marlowe recount his experiences as a steamboat captain on the Congo River. As night deepens, Marlowe's story becomes darker and darker. He tells how the Belgian Free State (modern Democratic Republic of the Congo) - a personal holding of the notorious Belgian monarch Leopold II - hired him to go up the Congo River to find a man named Kurtz. Kurtz is praised as an idealist, one the very best men that Europe had ever produced. As the story progresses Marlowe becomes increasingly obsessed with meeting Kurtz who is stationed deep in the African interior and is ostensibly trading for ivory. Marlowe finds that the inhumanity of the Belgians increases the further his company penetrates the dark jungles of Africa's interior. The Belgians, despite all of their talk about civilizing the Africans, are motivated by sheer avarice and cruelty. To Marlwoe's horror he discovers that the epitome of inhumanity, avarice, and cruelty is none other than the idealist Kurtz himself.

There is little action in the external world of this story. Instead, the plot is driven by the psychological experiences of Marlowe as he travels up the Congo river. He is increasingly aware that man has a heart of darkness. The racial controversies that surround the book are centered on Conrad's depiction of Africa and Africans. According to Conrad's anthropology, man is a savage at heart; civilization is a thin veneer. This savage heart of darkness is revealed when the Europeans enter the primeval jungles of Africa and literally devolve back to a primitive state. Hence, Conrad's depictions of Africa and African's is racist. Though Conrad's Marlowe feels sympathy towards the brutalized Africans, he views them with condescension. They are "half devil, half child" (to borrow a phrase from Kipling) in his eyes. Moreover, Africa and the Africans are merely the backdrop for Marlowe's existential epiphany concerning the human condition (or, at least the European condition).

I defend the book as a good read for several reason. 1) We cannot simply block out and forget the failures of Western civilization. Good literature not only reveals the goodness and creativity of humanity, but it's depravity as well. 2) It is historically significant since it reveals something about European mentalities at the time (it captures the disconcerted Freudian suspicion that humanity is a dark, lustful core wrapped with a thin veneer of civility that coexisted with the late 19th century belief in progress). 3) I am a Calvinist and I am naturally interested in anything that explores the total depravity of the human soul.(less)

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May 30, 2012 Bailey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Heart of Darkness. favourite book.
Although the last time I read this was three years ago, it stills resonates so strongly that I feel the urge to write a review. Which is something that I almost never do. [And please ignore any grammatical errors]
Some people are hindered by Conrad's extensive imagery and skim through it in search of an obvious plot that easily moves from point A to B and end up sorely disappointed. This book was not meant to have a thrilling plot that keeps you perched on the e...more Heart of Darkness. favourite book.
Although the last time I read this was three years ago, it stills resonates so strongly that I feel the urge to write a review. Which is something that I almost never do. [And please ignore any grammatical errors]
Some people are hindered by Conrad's extensive imagery and skim through it in search of an obvious plot that easily moves from point A to B and end up sorely disappointed. This book was not meant to have a thrilling plot that keeps you perched on the end of your seat. This book is an exploration of the roots of human nature in their most primitive state. I know you are thinking "Oh great. Another one of 'those' books..." But this isn't just another one of 'those' books. By personifying the landscape, Conrad creates such a poignant picture that you can smell the odor of the enslaved natives as they work and feel the oppressive heat of the air in your lungs. Conrad also somehow seamlessly ties the landscape into an interpretation of human nature, but not in the way that a dark tree represents a dark spirit, but through the idea that in nature the true essence of man is revealed. Now that I am writing this is seems a very Romantic idea.
Flairs of Romanticism aside, let me just directly quote some of this fantastic imagery (and I'm not spoiling anything because this is on the first or second page of the book) :
"In and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters,
thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of
an impotent despair. Nowhere did we stop long enough to get a particularized impression, but the
general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst
hints for nightmares." (page 60)
My imagination is ignited.
The brilliance continues and the image of the old woman knitting in the waiting room and the oppressive dark green wall pressing in on either side of that tortuous river forever seared into my mind's eye is a testament to it.
And at last, once Marlow has finished his story, the last sentence offers one last piercing image of "a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky- seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."(less)

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Oct 31, 2012 Bethan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-novellas, regular-fiction

I gathered from the introduction to my copy that there seems to be a debate about Conrad's treatment of colonial and racial issues in Heart of Darkness: whether Conrad is exposing and condemning it or just reconfirming white European rule. From what I could see, it seemed to be that Conrad appears to be reflecting what is probably the average person's position on it: predictably a mixture.

Apathy, inertia because it does not adversely affect the white person, because it is what the majority goes...more I gathered from the introduction to my copy that there seems to be a debate about Conrad's treatment of colonial and racial issues in Heart of Darkness: whether Conrad is exposing and condemning it or just reconfirming white European rule. From what I could see, it seemed to be that Conrad appears to be reflecting what is probably the average person's position on it: predictably a mixture.

Apathy, inertia because it does not adversely affect the white person, because it is what the majority goes along with, and is inexorably cultural. It is not an easy thing to walk against a crowd - many people think they aren't racist but do not realise just how much they are, in so many subtle and internalised ways. This isn't exclusively a white thing because I've encountered people of other ethnicities who are actually racist about their own ethnic group, and I've encountered people who experienced injustice being discriminatory towards other groups e.g. in the biographical Maus, the father who was a Jew that survived the Holocaust was racist about black people. Or how about a campaigner for black rights who is sexist and homophobic. You get the idea... people tend to have quite a narrow focus and many may not be able to see the bigger picture or can't care much about what does not affect them.

Yet, on the other hand, many people have a conscience and a sense of what is right also, and so Conrad could also tap into that and thus discomfort with the treatment of the blacks and their country is expressed through the character of Marlow and the exposition of this cruel and genocidal action through his novella.

So, that's what I think about that debate and where Conrad is: in-between it. Outside of being a fiction writer, it is documented that Conrad the man himself did not agree with the treatment of the blacks in the Congo that he encountered as a sailor but resisted getting involved in political activism about it, and it makes the most sense to me that he would be reflecting a similar position in his fiction. But don't discount it because it is a way of expressing and drawing attention to the problem and issue. People would not be talking so much about this particular area in colonial history and thinking about the issues it raises to this day if he had not written about it, which can only be a good thing.

Primarily, the trickiness of Conrad aside, I see this novella as preternatural, exotic with a sea journey and the jungle as a setting, beautifully written, about the fascination and compelling mystery of the character of Kurtz and his black heart indeed, the aura and idea of which Marlow appears possessed with. Quite honestly, I don't find Conrad good at being clear and specific about sketching out his points and characters but more about vaguer ideas and expression about the souls of people and how they are in the world. 'The Secret Sharer' was another good example of this and is also a really good story included in my copy, about a sailor who conceals a fellow sailor who had killed a man and engineers his escape to land which, if not about deeper and spiritual commentary about the souls of people, may partly be about how you can theoretically have bigger ideas and principles but they are hard to put into practice when faced with real people and real situations where it can be hard to go against the tide.
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May 20, 2013 Francisco Subiabre rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the most outstanding books I’ve ever read. Marlow's feelings explore and represent the inner struggle and transformation of his soul towards the journey to the depths of the Congo as well as the depths of his own heart and soul. The nostalgia, catatonia and melancholy, all are present throughout the narrative, giving a sense horror as well as awe. In the end, we contemplate a tormented but wise protagonist who has seen and lived the horrors and sorrows of the human heart. Heart of Darknes...more

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May 27, 2013 J.C. rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: literature lovers, people who love Apocalypse Now

Shelves: banned, brit-lit, literature

"The horror, the horror!"

Heart of Darkness is definitely not a book to read lightly. I had to read it for my Brit-lit class, but i took my time with it instead of rushing it (during the semester you have so much reading to do that you don't get to READ everything), finishing it a week after the class was over. Better late than never, right?

This book is quite a mouthful. The sentences are long, thick with symbolism about heavy, thinker-minded topics. I like the scenario, it's more situation based...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Giuseppe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1800, literature-english, genre-adventure-fiction

Nel 1924 Joseph Conrad, autore polacco, si spegneva in Bishopsbourne, un piccolo paese del Kent, in Inghilterra, suo paese d’adozione. Nello stesso anno Edwin Hubble, grazie al telescopio Hooker, riusciva a mettere a punto il sistema degli indicatori di distanza tra galassie. Ciò buttò le basi per teorizzare, grazie all’associazione tra la scala delle distanze cosmiche ed il redshift (il fenomeno di cambio di colore nello spettro della luce), la versione moderna della teoria del Big Bang, uno de...more Nel 1924 Joseph Conrad, autore polacco, si spegneva in Bishopsbourne, un piccolo paese del Kent, in Inghilterra, suo paese d’adozione. Nello stesso anno Edwin Hubble, grazie al telescopio Hooker, riusciva a mettere a punto il sistema degli indicatori di distanza tra galassie. Ciò buttò le basi per teorizzare, grazie all’associazione tra la scala delle distanze cosmiche ed il redshift (il fenomeno di cambio di colore nello spettro della luce), la versione moderna della teoria del Big Bang, uno dei più intriganti misteri dell’Universo (se non il più grande). La teoria del Big Bang si è poi evoluta grazie ai contributi di eminenti scienziati tra cui Einstein, Friedman e Zwicky. E ci si è cominciati a chiedere come fosse l’Universo, quanto grande, che forma avesse e come evolvesse. Un guazzabuglio di materia, tempo ed energia che ha portato negli anni settanta alla teoria delle stringhe, la quale dava adito a pensare che ci potessero essere 10 elevato alla 500 universi possibili. Fino ad una delle più recenti teorie, la M-theory, che spiega che in realtà il nostro Universo è solo uno degli n possibili e che là fuori ne esisterebbero altri con leggi fisiche e dimensioni diverse dalle nostre. Ma tutte queste cose, per quanto incredibilmente affascinanti, sono solo dei modelli matematici, ancora lungi dall’essere dimostrate data la difficoltà dei riscontri.

Io sono nato nel 1979 e nel corrente anno 2012 ho letto le prime pagine di Conrad. Che mi hanno procurato un intenso piacere della lettura, nonché un profondo perturbamento dell’animo. Raramente uno scrittore aveva saputo mettere a nudo l’animo dei suoi personaggi così bene ed aveva funzionato da diapason, facendo vibrare il lettore (cioè il sottoscritto) all’unisono con essi. Raramente avevo trovato uno scrittore che riuscisse ad avere in sé tratti romantici, esistenzialisti, crepuscolari uniti ad una finissima critica della società moderna (ma anche di quella post-moderna). E raramente avevo trovato uno scrittore che per influenza fosse stato così tanto saccheggiato (letteratura, cinema, teatro) negli anni a venire, senza che io me ne rendessi conto.

Ora la domanda da porsi è: dove diavolo sono stato per 33 anni senza accorgermi degli scritti di Conrad e della loro influenza? Ebbene, dopo tanto rimuginare, sono arrivato all’unica spiegazione plausibile. In realtà io ero in un altro universo. Uno di quelli teorizzati, quelli con leggi fisiche e dimensioni differenti. E tra queste differenze sicuramente c’era quella che Conrad non esistesse e quindi io non ne potessi godere. Fino a che non ho compiuto un balzo nell’universo attuale qualche giorno fa (non chiedetemi come, ci sto ancora ragionando). Ecco, io vorrei andare dagli attuali fisici teorici e presentarmi a loro come la prova vivente che si, hanno ragione, esistono n universi, tutti diversi. Sono sicuro che di primo acchito sarebbero felicissimi e mi farebbero un sacco di domande a cui non saprei rispondere, visto che l’unica differenza che ricordo è appunto l’assenza delle opere di Conrad, così deludendoli. Invece a me basta, per esser contento, l'aver cambiato di universo.
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Aug 12, 2012 Jaclyn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, gilmore-girls, 1001, africa, bbc, well-educated-mind

This collection is 3 short stories leading up to the main novella, and what is considered to be Conrad's best work. Sadly I enjoyed the 3 short stories more than I did the headliner of the book. Heart of Darkness was a struggle for me. It jumped around for me in a way I struggled to follow at times, and overall I just did not find it to be a compelling story that I was interested in. An Outpost of Progress was my favorite and the only story I enjoyed thoroughly from beginning to end. Karain and...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Danielle Krause rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Heart of Darkness" seemed to me both too short and too long - the lack of action and the fact that the book was centered mainly in the storyteller's mind made it drag on, but at the same time I felt like so much more could have happened. I did not really feel like I got into the mind of the narrator, and Kurtz was much less powerful of a character than I expected. The story felt somehow incomplete, and I was not a fan of the ending.
I actually much preferred the stories in the second half of the...more

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May 07, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: uni, classics, litexp13, classics-club

Heart of Darkness tells the tale of Charlie Marlow’s journey on an ivory transporter down an unknown river in the Congo. What he sees horrifies and perplexes him, calling into question the very basis of civilisation and human nature. The story follows this commercial agent and the object of his obsession, the notorious ivory-procurement agent Mr Kurtz. This novella has become an important piece in the western canon for its range of themes and scholarly values.

I remember reading this book a few y...more Heart of Darkness tells the tale of Charlie Marlow’s journey on an ivory transporter down an unknown river in the Congo. What he sees horrifies and perplexes him, calling into question the very basis of civilisation and human nature. The story follows this commercial agent and the object of his obsession, the notorious ivory-procurement agent Mr Kurtz. This novella has become an important piece in the western canon for its range of themes and scholarly values.

I remember reading this book a few years back and while I thought it was an interesting book, I never really grasped it completely (and I’m not sure if I ever will) but for comparison to what I know now and then, check out my review here. To begin with we need to gain an understanding of Joseph Conrad’s life because there are a lot of life experiences in this book. Born Josef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski in Russian-ruled Poland in 1857; this part of Poland is now part of Ukraine. Both parents were political activists and as a result of their participation in the Polish independence movement they were exiled to Northern Russia in 1863. At sixteen he dropped out of school to work on a French merchant ship, sailing the West Indies as an apprentice. Later he joined a British ship where he served as a merchant for ten years, during this time he gained the rank of captain and became a naturalized British citizen. During a trip in 1890 sailing through the Belgian Congo and Congo River he got really sick and had to retire from sailing and focused his energy on writing. This means Joseph Conrad must have grown up speaking Polish and Russian, learning French at some point and then English. Although he often struggled to write in his adopted language, he is now considered one of the greatest prose stylists in English literature.

There are many themes explored in this book, so much so that I think I would need to keep reading this book again and again to discover them. Though major themes include slavery (the effect the British had on Africa) as well the author’s problems with Colonialism and Imperialism. There are a few other themes I would much prefer exploring. First of all, the idea of alienation; both Conrad and Marlow are both outsiders. The entire novel questions what alienation and loneliness can do to a person over an extended period of time, especially since they are in hostile environments. Even the doctor warns Marlow prior to his departure of changes to his personality that may be produced by a long stay in another country. Prolonged solitude seems to have damaging effects on the sailors, which leads me into another major theme; insanity. In the case of Kurtz, the loneliness lead to literal madness, while others like Marlow’s predecessor, Captain Fresleven was described as a gentle soul that transformed into a violent one.

There are other themes I really would love to talk about but for the sake of keeping this review a decent length I will just highlight them. Heart of Darkness also looks at the way Belgium is exploiting the Congo, order verse disorder, duty verse responsibility, doubt verse ambiguity, race verse racism and finally violence and cruelty. All these, plus many more, are reasons why this book has been studied. It is a very difficult book to explore, I found myself rereading passages trying to get more out of it. I know at one point near the start of reading this I thought I would never get enough meaning out of this book but eventually it opened up to me.

There are a lot of symbols within the book as well, beginning with the title and the setting; Heart of Darkness deep in the heart of the Congo, the centre of the deep dark Africa. Even the fact that the entire story is told in the late afternoon as the sun sets is a motif of Africa. There are a lot more in this novel but I want to quickly talk about the movie adaptation Apocalypse Now. Sure there are some similarities but not enough to really consider the movie to be based on this novella. There are more similarities with Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in the way the book starts out, also with Bram Stokers’ Dracula with the suspension between life and death. So how are they the similar, since one is set in the Congo and the other during the Vietnam War? The very basic answer would be that both look at the deterioration of humanity as a result of conflict, one via imperialism and one by war.

I would love to talk about the narrative and how there are two narrators, Marlow and someone anonymous. And how all the scenes on the Nellie are obviously an introductory and critique to the story that it doesn’t go away after the intro. Marlow’s narrative is often interrupted by this unnamed narrator as they listen to the story as a way for Conrad to tell the reader to notice different themes. There are also the proses in the book, poetic and while difficult, you can get swept away and not really notice just what Conrad is trying to do. So many things I want to talk about but I have to cut this review short.

Heart of Darkness is a really complex book but if you take the time to break it apart and explore the text critically, you’ll find there is so much to appreciate. It’s like a fine meal, it can be enjoyed without any thought, but if you take the time to see how each element complements each other you end up enjoying the novella a whole lot more. It all comes together with a sense of satisfaction that while you might not know everything Joseph Conrad was trying to say, you know enough for the book to have real value.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...(less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Teoh rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If it was not for 'Apocalypse Now', I would not have bought this book to discover what the fuss was about. Unfortunately, whilst I could easily grasp the first three stories, it was the title namesake that I was unable to get a handle on. I just could not wrap my head around either the prose or the convulted narrative.

If you plan on getting the book for the first three stories, then it is probably worth your time. Otherwise, I would rather recommend watching Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, and a ho...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Gavin rated it 3 of 5 stars

For a character that shows up in maybe 20 pages of the book, there certainly has been a lot said about Kurtz and his descent to madness. For me, the ending was more confusing than enlightening. I had to read it a few times before I really got what happened. Once there, I couldn't help but wonder about all the credit given to this novella. Kurtz goes into the jungle, goes mad, and rules over some natives. Maybe it's that I'm from a more modern era, but to me it seems a foregone conclusion that ev...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Eric rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

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

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Apr 06, 2013 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: longish-reviews, read-2013

I can't really recommend Joseph Conrad to anyone. Not that there's any issues with his writing, just…it's really hard to read quickly. Conrad's a smart writer, I think his humor is underappreciated, and his characters are always keenly aware of the psychology behind everything that's going on, and Heart of Darkness is just a classic…I just don't feel like reading his works gave any extra insight that reading about them doesn't give. But at the same time, I don't regret reading it. I guess I just...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Zachariah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Heart of Darkness is an astounding feat of literature, displaying an uncanny command of the written English language, and written by a man who learned English as his third fluent language while in his late teens. I will not spoil the story here, but Heart of Darkness is a strange and grim, yet fascinating, look into the horror that was the Belgian Congo and the horror of human enterprise. The language may at times seem difficult for after-all, it is the common British-English of 1899.

As greatly...more Heart of Darkness is an astounding feat of literature, displaying an uncanny command of the written English language, and written by a man who learned English as his third fluent language while in his late teens. I will not spoil the story here, but Heart of Darkness is a strange and grim, yet fascinating, look into the horror that was the Belgian Congo and the horror of human enterprise. The language may at times seem difficult for after-all, it is the common British-English of 1899.

As greatly as I enjoyed Heart of Darkness, I was even more elated with the other selected stories; Youth!, Amy Foster, and The Secret Sharer. All of these tales, including Heart of Darkness, are nautically informed and drawn from Conrad's experience as a sailor. Most unfamiliar nautical terms are explained in the end-notes and those that aren't will not diminish the story.

Youth! is an enticing story about a young man on somewhat of a micro-Odyssey. He is charged with the task of serving on a vessel upon its last sea-legs, a vessel which must make the long journey from Britain to Bangkok. It is a story of a a man views the world, his experiences, through the lens of youth.

Amy Foster, is a tragic tale of a shipwrecked man, a stranger in a strange land if you will, who finds himself alive but downtrodden and utterly perplexed with the unfamiliarity of his new 'home'. Ultimately, the novella is a tale of a broken heart, a broken body, and a man and his wife.

The Secret Sharer, the final and perhaps my favorite of Conrad's stories, centers around two men, a fugitive and a captain who are parallel to each-other yet strangers on the captain's own ship. Strangers to the crew and to the ship itself, that is. The captain struggles to bring some sort of salvation to his unlikely companion. I found this story to be quite the page turner and was quite satisfied with its language, length, and intrigue.

Overall, I highly recommend Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction to a wide variety of readers, especially; to those who enjoy short stories of adventure, insight into the human mind, literature of the period(ca. 1900), and of course, to those who are intrigued by nautical tales. (less)

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Feb 19, 2012 Jeff rated it 2 of 5 stars

Conrad explores the "darkness" of imperialism and the subjugation of sorts of "others" in this book of Belgium's occupation of the Congo river during the ivory trade. Filled with deep moments of insanity and discomfort, Marlow, the protagonist ventures to understand the failings of Kurtz, a mythic figure of imperialism that has been wrapped in the darkness of his submersion into Africa.

Interlaced, there are limited commentaries on Africa and the outright denial of a foreign culture versus the ca...more

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About Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.

Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard Bri...more

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“The mysteries of a universe made of drops of fire and clods of mud do not concern us in the least. The fate of humanity condemned ultimately to perish from cold is not worth troubling about. If you take it to heart it becomes an unendurable tragedy. If you believe in improvement you must weep, for the attained perfection must end in cold, darkness and silence. In a dispassionate view the ardour for reform, improvement for virtue, and knowledge, and even for beauty is only a vain sticking up for appearances as though one were anxious about the cut of one’s clothes in a community of blind men.” — 2 people liked it

“how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammelled feet may take him into by the way of solitude-utter solitude without a policeman-by the way of silence-utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the great difference. When they are gone you must fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your own capacity for faithfulness.” — 1 person liked it

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