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vivizinha's review against another edition
1.0
This book was truly horrible. The only star is for the last dialogue between Marlow and Kurtz's fiancée, and she was by far the only interesting character that appeared in the last 10 pages lol.
circesophelia's review against another edition
kind of hard to rate.
horrifying and uncomfortable book at points, yet brilliant to study
horrifying and uncomfortable book at points, yet brilliant to study
ovd7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
scastricato1's review against another edition
1.0
I read this book for high school and it made me so bored. Watching paint dry would actually be better
daja57's review against another edition
5.0
In the darkest days of colonial Africa, a sailor travels down a river to collect a bring back to civilisation from the heart of the heart-shaped continent, an ivory trader who has gone 'native'. This is a classic tale of warped human values and the savagery that lurks within each human's soul.
Heart of Darkness is a frame narrative, that is to say, it is a story told by an (unnamed) narrator about a story told by a (named) narrator. This device adds a layer of distance between the reader and the story (in the case of HoD this distance intensified by the fact that there are only two named characters: Marlow, the narrator protagonist, and Kurtz, the object of the quest).
Perhaps more importantly, the framing device allows the narrator Marlow to comment on the story as he is telling it, almost as if he were an editor adding footnotes. In particular he compares the location in the Thames estuary of the narrator and his listeners with the story’s setting on the (unnamed) African river, a comparison driven home from Marlow’s very first line: “And this also ... has been one of the dark places of the earth.” Marlow is telling his listeners that the difference between their cosy complacent ‘civilised’ world and the savage wilderness of the story is only on the surface: that the heart of darkness is inside each one of us, waiting for its opportunity to escape.
The plot of the novel corresponds fairly closely to a voyage made by the author about seven years before up the Congo river in what was then the Belgian Congo, a vast tract of Central Africa which was the personal fiefdom of King Leopold II of the Belgians in which the indigenous population was ruthlessly and often viciously exploited by quasi-private commercial concerns to extract the key resources of ivory and rubber. Conrad was horrified by what he observed on this journey and the novel can in some ways be thought of as a cathartic memoir. Marlow the narrator is also the narrator in two other Conrad novels (Lord Jim, written the year after HoD, and Chance) and a short story (Youth).
Seen through modern eyes, HoD contains a great deal of racism: Conrad repeatedly uses the word ‘nigger’, he repeatedly describes the Africans encountered as primitive, and he suggests that the life of a black man killed on the expedition to rescue Kurtz is not necessarily equal to that of Kurtz (“I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him ... a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara"; Ch 2). Furthermore, he does not condemn colonialism but makes a distinction between the practices he observes in the Congo (“robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale”; Ch 1) and colonialism (“They were no colonists”; Ch 1); he explicitly says that the idea of colonialism can redeem the practice: “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only.” (Ch 1)
However, at the time, the book was a trail-blazing challenge to contemporary attitudes, and it can be seen as a catalyst in the campaign to end the worst aspects of the treatment of the native population which, following the Casement Report by the British government, led to the Belgian government taking (official) responsibility for the colony.
And it is a wonderfully written book.
Echoes of Jesus?
Officially Kurtz, which means ‘short’ in German, although Conrad states “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Ch 3), was based on a real man named Klein (which means ‘little’). However, I am intrigued by the similarity between ‘Kurtz’ and ‘Christ’. My thesis is that Kurtz is meant to represent a Christ-like figure, although one with possibly satanic overtones.
Here is my evidence:
Marlow describes the city where he receives his commission, the city (of Brussels) which is involved in the exploitation of the Congo, as a "whited sepulchre" (Ch 1), a phrase used by Jesus (Matthew 23.27) when he is calling the Pharisees hypocrites.
There are several moments in the early part of the story when we catch - often contrary - glimpses of Kurtz through the eyes of other people: “Kurtz whom at the time I did not see—you understand. He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything?” (Ch 1) It is as if Conrad is saying that there are many interpretations of God ... and no-one has the full truth. In the end, Marlow, who claims to know Kurtz as well as anyone could, himself realises that it is impossible to articulate a single, unified, coherent description of Kurtz. This description of what cannot be described uses the technique of ambiguity which Conrad’s friend Henry James had just used to great effect in The Turn of the Screw, another frame narrative, published just the year before HoD.
Kurtz inspires religious-like devotion in his followers, not least the apostle-like Russian. He says that Kurtz talked of “love” and when Marlow, assuming, presumably, he means sexual love, says dismissively “Ah, he talked to you of love!” the manager replies “It isn’t what you think. ... He made me see things.” He says the tribesmen “adored” Kurtz.
The people coming to take Kurtz back with them are described as ‘pilgrims’, an ironic appellation. They are presumably the pharisees and “the manager” is the High Priest Caiaphas.
Marlow realises that the Africans travelling on the boat are cannibals. Is this an echo of holy communion in which Christians eat the body (bread) and drink the blood (wine) of Christ?
When Kurtz is told he must leave he promises “I will return. I’ll show you what can be done. ... I will return.” (Ch 3)
The episode in which Marlow, acting perhaps as Judas, ‘captures’ Kurtz has echoes of the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There are many ambiguities in this scene: does Marlow carry Kurtz to the boat or persuade him? And in this scene Marlow repeatedly mixes the physical with the spiritual. He says that Kurtz had “kicked himself loose of the earth.” He says “if anyone had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man.” He uses the phrase “for my sins, I suppose” when saying that he had to look within his soul.
The paragraph before Kurtz says his last words (“The horror! The horror!”) begins “It was as though a veil had been rent.” In the Gospel of Matthew, during the final moments of Jesus on the cross, he shouts out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and then dies; “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two”.
And Conrad repeatedly compares Africa with England two thousand years ago, at the time of Christ or thereabouts, as if to suggest that Kurtz is a Messiah for the Africans.
When, back in Europe, Marlow goes to see Kurtz’s girlfriend, they talk about Kurtz ... and she rewrites the story. She says it is impossible not to love him. She says “It is impossible that all this should be lost—that such a life should be sacrificed to leave nothing—but sorrow. You know what vast plans he had. I knew of them, too—I could not perhaps understand—but others knew of them. Something must remain. His words, at least, have not died.” She even says “his goodness shone in every act” and Marlow finds himself agreeing with her. And she says: “I cannot believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never.” Marlow comments “I saw him clearly enough then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live.”
But this isn’t the gentle Christ of the Anglican church. Kurtz has surrounded his hut with the heads of ‘rebels'; he is described as “very terrible”. I think Conrad is imagining a Christ who comes not to bring peace, but a sword.
Heart of Darkness is a frame narrative, that is to say, it is a story told by an (unnamed) narrator about a story told by a (named) narrator. This device adds a layer of distance between the reader and the story (in the case of HoD this distance intensified by the fact that there are only two named characters: Marlow, the narrator protagonist, and Kurtz, the object of the quest).
Perhaps more importantly, the framing device allows the narrator Marlow to comment on the story as he is telling it, almost as if he were an editor adding footnotes. In particular he compares the location in the Thames estuary of the narrator and his listeners with the story’s setting on the (unnamed) African river, a comparison driven home from Marlow’s very first line: “And this also ... has been one of the dark places of the earth.” Marlow is telling his listeners that the difference between their cosy complacent ‘civilised’ world and the savage wilderness of the story is only on the surface: that the heart of darkness is inside each one of us, waiting for its opportunity to escape.
The plot of the novel corresponds fairly closely to a voyage made by the author about seven years before up the Congo river in what was then the Belgian Congo, a vast tract of Central Africa which was the personal fiefdom of King Leopold II of the Belgians in which the indigenous population was ruthlessly and often viciously exploited by quasi-private commercial concerns to extract the key resources of ivory and rubber. Conrad was horrified by what he observed on this journey and the novel can in some ways be thought of as a cathartic memoir. Marlow the narrator is also the narrator in two other Conrad novels (Lord Jim, written the year after HoD, and Chance) and a short story (Youth).
Seen through modern eyes, HoD contains a great deal of racism: Conrad repeatedly uses the word ‘nigger’, he repeatedly describes the Africans encountered as primitive, and he suggests that the life of a black man killed on the expedition to rescue Kurtz is not necessarily equal to that of Kurtz (“I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him ... a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara"; Ch 2). Furthermore, he does not condemn colonialism but makes a distinction between the practices he observes in the Congo (“robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale”; Ch 1) and colonialism (“They were no colonists”; Ch 1); he explicitly says that the idea of colonialism can redeem the practice: “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only.” (Ch 1)
However, at the time, the book was a trail-blazing challenge to contemporary attitudes, and it can be seen as a catalyst in the campaign to end the worst aspects of the treatment of the native population which, following the Casement Report by the British government, led to the Belgian government taking (official) responsibility for the colony.
And it is a wonderfully written book.
Echoes of Jesus?
Officially Kurtz, which means ‘short’ in German, although Conrad states “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Ch 3), was based on a real man named Klein (which means ‘little’). However, I am intrigued by the similarity between ‘Kurtz’ and ‘Christ’. My thesis is that Kurtz is meant to represent a Christ-like figure, although one with possibly satanic overtones.
Here is my evidence:
Marlow describes the city where he receives his commission, the city (of Brussels) which is involved in the exploitation of the Congo, as a "whited sepulchre" (Ch 1), a phrase used by Jesus (Matthew 23.27) when he is calling the Pharisees hypocrites.
There are several moments in the early part of the story when we catch - often contrary - glimpses of Kurtz through the eyes of other people: “Kurtz whom at the time I did not see—you understand. He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything?” (Ch 1) It is as if Conrad is saying that there are many interpretations of God ... and no-one has the full truth. In the end, Marlow, who claims to know Kurtz as well as anyone could, himself realises that it is impossible to articulate a single, unified, coherent description of Kurtz. This description of what cannot be described uses the technique of ambiguity which Conrad’s friend Henry James had just used to great effect in The Turn of the Screw, another frame narrative, published just the year before HoD.
Kurtz inspires religious-like devotion in his followers, not least the apostle-like Russian. He says that Kurtz talked of “love” and when Marlow, assuming, presumably, he means sexual love, says dismissively “Ah, he talked to you of love!” the manager replies “It isn’t what you think. ... He made me see things.” He says the tribesmen “adored” Kurtz.
The people coming to take Kurtz back with them are described as ‘pilgrims’, an ironic appellation. They are presumably the pharisees and “the manager” is the High Priest Caiaphas.
Marlow realises that the Africans travelling on the boat are cannibals. Is this an echo of holy communion in which Christians eat the body (bread) and drink the blood (wine) of Christ?
When Kurtz is told he must leave he promises “I will return. I’ll show you what can be done. ... I will return.” (Ch 3)
The episode in which Marlow, acting perhaps as Judas, ‘captures’ Kurtz has echoes of the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There are many ambiguities in this scene: does Marlow carry Kurtz to the boat or persuade him? And in this scene Marlow repeatedly mixes the physical with the spiritual. He says that Kurtz had “kicked himself loose of the earth.” He says “if anyone had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man.” He uses the phrase “for my sins, I suppose” when saying that he had to look within his soul.
The paragraph before Kurtz says his last words (“The horror! The horror!”) begins “It was as though a veil had been rent.” In the Gospel of Matthew, during the final moments of Jesus on the cross, he shouts out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and then dies; “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two”.
And Conrad repeatedly compares Africa with England two thousand years ago, at the time of Christ or thereabouts, as if to suggest that Kurtz is a Messiah for the Africans.
When, back in Europe, Marlow goes to see Kurtz’s girlfriend, they talk about Kurtz ... and she rewrites the story. She says it is impossible not to love him. She says “It is impossible that all this should be lost—that such a life should be sacrificed to leave nothing—but sorrow. You know what vast plans he had. I knew of them, too—I could not perhaps understand—but others knew of them. Something must remain. His words, at least, have not died.” She even says “his goodness shone in every act” and Marlow finds himself agreeing with her. And she says: “I cannot believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never.” Marlow comments “I saw him clearly enough then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live.”
But this isn’t the gentle Christ of the Anglican church. Kurtz has surrounded his hut with the heads of ‘rebels'; he is described as “very terrible”. I think Conrad is imagining a Christ who comes not to bring peace, but a sword.
beachybookstack's review against another edition
2.0
This book is 90 pages. I have read 300 page books faster. What a hellish thesaurus-leaning slog! Not all classics are worth the time and I almost regret choosing this one just to knock a book off my yearly reading list.
I understand the point, the moral. The evils of colonialism, the potential for charismatic figures in such environments, the cruelty of it all. But for godsakes, drive your steamboat up the damn river faster and stop with the overflow of metaphors for darkness. May I suggest the Bell Jar for a journey through a darkening mind? That was much more enjoyable.
I understand the point, the moral. The evils of colonialism, the potential for charismatic figures in such environments, the cruelty of it all. But for godsakes, drive your steamboat up the damn river faster and stop with the overflow of metaphors for darkness. May I suggest the Bell Jar for a journey through a darkening mind? That was much more enjoyable.
rmarynarz's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
angelique68's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5