Great Books Of The 20th Century Heart Of Darkness: Amazon.ca: Joseph Conrad: Books

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In HEART OF DARKNESS, Marlow, the narrator, undertakes both an outer and an inner journey. The outer journey takes him into the heart of Africa, where he encounters representatives of every colonial stripe. Performing the work instead of simply reading it, Scott Brick emphasizes this aspect of Conrad's classic, clearly conveying class differences and a range of foreign accents, as well as pidgin. Conrad's prose is dense and complex, but Brick delivers it smoothly and gracefully. However, Marlow's inner journey--during which he confronts the mysterious Mr. Kurtz--remains too distant and intellectualized to fully capture the emotional charge of the moment. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

As powerful a condemnation of imperialism as has ever been written Observer Once experienced, it is hard to let Heart of Darkness go. A masterpiece of surprise, of expression and psychological nuance, of fury at colonial expansion and of how men make the least of life ... endlessly readable and worthy of rereading Telegraph --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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THE NELLIE, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. Read the first page

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Re-Readable Classic, Nov 19 2006

By

Erico (British Columbia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heart Of Darkness (Paperback)

Set in the Belgian Congo during the 19th century Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a journey to the darkest corners of the wilderness and the human heart. The story is told by Marlow, a sailor, who journeys to the Congo to captain a river steamer and ends up on a expedition to save an extrodinary ivory trader by the name of Mr. Kurtz.

Throughout this journey he encounters the raw brutality of colonialism in all its horror and greed. Conrad brings the reader to the frontier where men do savage things all for the spoils of conquest. This is in sharp contrast with other African adventure classics, such as King Solomon's Mines, which take a much more amiable view of the conquest of Africa.

Conrad shows all this barbarism with vivid imagery. His description of the Congo wilderness brings it life with all the mystery and majesty it is due. Conrad's prose is magnificent; you feel like you are at Marlow's side throughout the whole story. However anyone thinking this is a fast paced thriller is mistaken. It plot moves at a leisurely pace and isn't as rushed as novels today.

Another one of the beauties of this book is its re-readability. I first read it through without reading the introduction and I am glad I did. It let me interperet the meaning of the book without anyone else's influences and when I read the introduction at the end I found that there was a myraid of other themes that could be drawn from the story that I had not thought of. I am now reading it a second time in a new light. I suggest anyone reading it the first time to skip the intro and the footnotes until you've read it once. It will definetly make it a more enjoyable read.

Not that it is not already an excellent book. Heart of Darkness is a literature masterpiece that shows the raw repungent character of colonialism and human nature with haunting power.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Into the vacuum poured the primal force of the cosmos., Feb 29 2004

By

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Penguin Essentials Heart Of Darkness (Paperback)

When Kurtz exclaims "The Horror! The Horror!" it is in the same sense that we would also cry out if suddenly faced with the unshielded countenance of God. At the threshold, just before we were either consumed, or absorbed, this too would be our cry.

This most remarkable of books is a dissection of the Western psyche. We start with the capital city of the living dead in Europe itself. This is a land of sleepwalkers who have never awakened- they live out their lives spinning castles in the air that ultimately mean nothing. This is the state of the modern Western mind. Theory and profit, but no soul. On the journey down the African coast we encounter the European battleship antiseptically shelling the coast. These are transplanted westerners hiding in the shells of their technological terrors while lobbing shells into the outer world- without really being contaminated by it. Then we reach the coast, where the high ideals preached in Europe are more and more obviously abandoned the farther inland one travels. When the land and the natives become "difficult", pure force and brutality are used to overcome and destroy.

In other words, if they will not be "westernized", turned into copies of us, they must be obliterated. Preferably while making us a profit.

Kurtz was a strong man. He was ambitious and powerful. Perhaps he kept up the charade of "civilizing" the natives and the land in the name "progress" longer than anyone else. He kept up these empty lies until he penetrated to the deepest core of the primeval jungle. And then, this hollow shell of ideals and greed imploded. You see, as Conrad points out, Kurtz was fundamentally hollow. Yet Kurtz didn't just die, he was too strong. Instead, into that vacuum rushed the primal force itself. Kurtz became what he hated the most- he became the soul of the jungle- because he had none of his own. He became an "animal" in its highest sense, a totally natural man. Indeed he became a natural King, as the native tribes recognized. He and the land were truly one.

It is a mistake to judge Kurtz by the standards of the city of the dead. Kurtz and his warriors sweeping across the jungle, taking heads and ivory as trophies, was as natural as lions running down gazelles.... Far more natural than the hypocritical, brutal, soulless, enslavement of the coastal natives in the name of "civilization"....

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5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic, Mar 21 2004

By

Nick Tropiano (Havertown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Heart of Darkness (Audio CD)

I was exposed to Conrad when I took a course in Modern Fiction as an undergraduate, 20 years ago. I took the course as an elective to fill a lit requirement. It was one of the best courses I've ever taken, and of all the tremendous books that were assigned, this was my favorite. I have read this at least 1/2 dozen times in my life. I WAS glad, however, that I had a literary scholar walk through this one. I doubt I would have appreciated it as much had I not. I would therefore recommend the critical edition if you're reading this on your own. Modern Fiction - the literary period from circa 1900 to the mid-fifty's, is not everyone's cup of tea and can understand the negative reviews. The best of these works are dense, relative to today's standards but worthwhile - at least to me. Simply, they don't make'em like this anymore.

After reading Heart of Darkness, take another look at Apocalypse Now, the best film adaptation of a novel - ever.

Dark, hypnotic, surreal - Heart of Darkness stands alone as a unique classic of american literature.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book, but not a very good ending.
This story always keeps the reader interested and is very well written. Only problem I see is that the ending is not very good-it is very emotional and sad and I expected a... Read more

Published on Oct 4 2006 by Ahsan