** spoiler alert ** Thinking about this book psychologically this book has an interesting premise: an enlightened Renaissance man of sorts goes out into the heart of Africa in search of ivory, loses his mind, becomes a god-like figure in the minds of local tribes, and is to be brought back to civilization. Wow! A mind fractured to pieces through loneliness and isolation, ego sent to the highest of heights, only to be brought back to civilization? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, that's all the book has going for it. Conrad seems to through up a smokescreen of words as if he doesn't want the reader to know what's going on (This might have been different if I was reading the book in the late 1800s, but I'm not, and neither are you). His depiction of the Africans seems pretty racist, as none of them have any real character besides being cannibals and followers of Kurtz. This might have been more acceptable at the time, but it makes you wonder why this book is such a classic.