Reviews

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

coopercodes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Difficult to read, but the author wasn’t a native English speaker.

Still, the themes and messages of this novel are extremely timeless and it shouldn’t be slept on. 

gurjotminhas's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

vertebrae's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I’m glad I read Heart of Darkness, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. It’s not lost on me that Conrad is so smugly preaching about the hypocrisy of imperialism and the “White Man’s Burden” to combat his white guilt that he is wholly oblivious to the fact that he embodies that exact hypocrisy in relation to women. 

rufussnailhat's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

suzzeb22's review

4.0

I found this book very interesting and I liked the author's writing style. It is certainly grim and it stayed with me for a while. Better than I thought it would be.

bettun_639's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.25

cheyarsen's review

1.0

Hated it. Too much detail. I couldn't understand a word of it.

flelix's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

klarasandlin's review against another edition

2.0

2 ⭐️ This was really boring and even right after I had finished it I had forgotten much of it, that’s how uninterested I was. I didn’t like the writing style, the storytelling, the plot, or the unclear message. I understand why it is a classic school-type book but think it is fairly
overrated. I’m glad we don’t have to write an essay on it cause I don’t think I could successfully fake my enthusiasm. However, I am glad to have read it since it is considered a classic story.

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

 

This is one of those books I had to read in college but didn't quite pay much attention to. However, after reading Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, I came back and gave this a second look, and paid considerably more attention. 

In the context of King Leopold's Ghost, and with the knowledge of the limitations and biases of the author at the time it was written, this is a brilliant book. The prose is evocative and sharp, and Conrad utilizes pacing quite well. It's not a perfect picture of what was going on in the Congo at the time, but it does a good job impressing the brutality imposed by the colonizers. The fact that Conrad even has a line about this - 

“I had no idea of the conditions, he said: these heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers—and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks.” – 

there is a lot to say about how this work is limited by the white supremacist norms of the time, but the fact that only the first part of this line seems to be prevalently discussed is, I think, part of the problem with how this novel is taught. If properly contextualized, this novel truly shines. 

This is an effective book well worth its status as a classic for all its faults.