Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions)
Book Review: the depravity of the human soul
Summary: 5 Stars
Conrad's rich imagery takes this exploration of the human soul and transcends it to a spiritual sourjourn. "The horror, the horror".
Book Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this tale when I was fifteen and its power and craftsmanship has only increased in stature...I've read it countless times since. For an example of some of the finest prose this century, read this book.Book Review: The brooding gloom of an accursed inheritance.
Summary: 5 Stars
The words, "brooding" and "gloom" appear in four of the first five paragraphs of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Why this mood? It was the pessimism gripping England late in the 19th century brought on by Darwin's startling revelations and the subsequent realization that perhaps mankind is not God's chosen. Conrad seasons the narrative with images of evolution. The story is told aboard a yacht at anchor, riding out the tide in the Thames, a waterway that led "to the uttermost ends of the earth," even "to the night of the first ages." Scientists speak of early man as if he lived long ago, but Marlow, the narrator, guides the reader to him on a "sea of inexorable time" to the other "end of countless ages . . . to the beginning of time." The journey itself is a voyage to Africa and up the Congo River in search of ivory. There Marlow encounters Kurtz, once the prodigy, now thoroughly corrupted by the horror of an encounter with the "appalling face of a glimpsed truth." Heart of Darkness truly ranks among the greatest of English language novels.Book Review: What is human?
Summary: 5 Stars
I read 'Heart of Darkness' late in life and remember thinking -'what a powerful story'- as I was turning the third page. As I turned the fourth page, I realized that 'Apocalype Now' was taken from it, if not word for word, then tought for thought. Nevertheless, the power of Conrads imagery is so overwhelming, that I found myself holding my hand over my beating heart, while imagining myself on that river steamer, making my way into the heart of Africa, into a world where men existed without knowledge of any life outside there own villages. I immediately went out and purchased his other titles before I'd finished 'Heart Of Darkness', just so that I would not be without them, should I suddenly finish the one that I was reading, and wish to go immediately to the next. If you wonder about the boundaries of human experience, this book will not disappoint!
HBook Review: the darkness of the heart
Summary: 5 Stars
i remember the first time i read this book. i had to. it was for english class.
it took a while to cut through the dense writing style that covered conrad's story like the jungle that surrounded marlow and kurtz, but after i found my way through, i too became lost.
it's about the brutal nature of civilization vis a vis the truth of the violence of nature. it's about deciding whether the good guy WOULD wear black or white. it's about the old saying that "nothing is ever what it seems." truth found these men in the one place they felt they would rule untouched. it showed them that the outside world and its pretty laws of society are only for pretending that we wouldn't do exactly as they did if we found ourselves in the jungle. at his heart, man is dark, hidden within society's shell like truth hides in the jungle for marlow and kurtz.
one bit of advice... read this book only if you feel you can handle the truth of man. i've gone into the jungle and never returned. it's all horror for me now. and i like it