Heart of Darkness
Books | Fiction / General
3.3
(4.9K)
Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness is a short novel by Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow’s life as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is “a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.” In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz.The story is a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism. Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness one of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century.
Historical Fiction
British Classics
AD
Buy now:
More Details:
Author
Joseph Conrad
Pages
154
Publisher
BookRix
Published Date
2018-10-17
ISBN
3736800835 9783736800830
Ratings
Google: 3
Community ReviewsSee all
"Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐
This was a wretched tale of one man's journey into the jungle to sate his wanderlust and an excitement of the unknown.
Only to find a beaten down civilization and to be ordered to get another man out who had succumbed to the darkness.
I enjoyed the descriptive nature of the writing but some parts were hard to listen to. "
Sarah
"4/5 Kurtz is a fascinating character, though the narrative is somewhat hard to follow "
Annabelle
"I understand the admiration of the intricate writing style, but it lacks the Congolese perspective and it’s such an intense read it almost makes it unenjoyable. "
Cate
"Left me feeling very strange. Conrad’s vocabulary is large and his prose is at points incredibly impenetrable, so you have to be used to classics going in otherwise I’m not sure you could get anything out of this read. It is only 72 pages and took me almost 5 days to read. I didn’t feel like I understood the story until the last three pages. I’m not sure even now if I do, but I definitely felt something!"
Markus Meyer
"1.5"
C A
Cameron Allen
"It’s creepy at times but powerful."
Anna Z
"It was fine, plot could’ve been better developed."
A H
Auden Harker
"Actually this on hbomax blows away any recent book: https://youtu.be/G0VdBPkHQow"
Nick Taylor
"I tried to read this when it was on my summer reading list in high school; I think I got to the third page before I gave up. This time, I toughed it out to the end. The story was not bad, but just dry. It actually felt more like an essay or memoir than a story. Conrad does play with some interesting concepts, and I guess that is why it is a classic.<br/>"
Ricki Marking-Camuto
"Honestly just found it a bit boring. I’m also not a fan of Conrad’s decision to portray the natives of the Congo in the way he did, but I know that some are of the belief that he choose to go that route to make a point about how society views colonialism. "
Alessia