Reviews - Heart of Darkness

5.66k reviews for:

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad

3.03 AVERAGE

weggyboard's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dlisa's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark informative

tonyreadsbooks's review against another edition

4.0

This book is one of the densest works of literature I have ever read. No review can adequately sum up the complexity of this book’s themes. I believe that this book is best experienced blind and read in a only a few sittings. There is not much I can really say in this review other than the fact that this book is worthy of a deep analysis. I will definitely be revisiting this book often. As a person who read Heart of Darkness outside of a college curriculum I greatly enjoyed it. Obviously being forced to read anything might cause some people to have a subpar literary experience but I still believe that this book is worthy of being considered a classic. There are arguments to be made about the dated representations of Africa but I believe that these representations are important to the understanding of colonialism and its philosophy. In the end, the reason for reading a “classic” may change over time but the book remains, as rich as it ever was. Final rating: 4/5.

cdlx's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

maddoxsweigart's review against another edition

4.0

i reflexively gave this one star just out of pure revulsion to the racism, but after watching the adaptation and thinking further, i think this is at its core a good book. it’s anti imperialist and does a wonderful job of showing the ultimate degradation of the white colonist. it’s just a shame that a great anti imperialist message has to be tainted by a horribly racist depiction of africans