Reviews

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has a title that can be interpreted as both the darkness within colonial Africa, or the darkness within the human conscience. The natives are exploited, starved and manipulated, but the Europeans who are brought to the continent are shown to either be crazy or confused. When Marlow says, “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” it is unclear whether he is referring to the colonialist and imperialist intentions of the Europeans, or the blurriness of human nature itself. English being his third language, surprisingly, Conrad’s writing is rigid and creaky, which makes his words difficult to get through at times. However, the somewhat sloppy writing style–which uses many em dashes and pauses–makes Marlow’s words feel authentic and unfiltered, avoiding the unrealistically coordinated dialogue structure of other novels. Concerning is the fact that Marlow only meets Kurtz in the third part of the three part story. There is plenty of value in the other two parts, but the complicated relationship between the two men is severely lacking, with room needed for further exploration. Really, it would have been preferable if, either, Conrad wrote a longer novella, or Kurtz would have been introduced earlier to fully under his influence on the natives as well as Marlow’s perception of the peculiar man. Heart of Darkness is wordy and, at times, underdeveloped, but the challenging ideas that it tackles have reserved its place in literary libraries.

offworldcolony's review against another edition

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4.0

Even just as a story being told within a story I enjoyed it. The bleakness of both locations in different ways and the nature of being able (but not asked) to doubt what you are being told.

_mox_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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