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A review by opheliapo
Heart of Darkness and Other Tales by Joseph Conrad
4.0
‘I let him run on, this papier-mâché Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe.’ (p.182)
I had very mixed feelings for this book. The introduction gave me context on the racial politics that followed the publications of these stories, as well as Conrad’s own horror at the atrocities he personally witnessed in the Congo, which fuelled his disgust for European imperialism, and the stories themselves seemed to shed light upon these beliefs and experiences.
I was entirely captivated by ‘An Outpost of Progress’, which I think will remain with me for a very long time. I found ‘Karain: A Memory’ and ‘Youth: A Narrative’ entirely forgettable and almost droning in narrative style, though this might have been due to them following such an excellent first story. Because of this, I was sceptical as I launched into ‘Heart of Darkness’, but found it intense, captivating, and at times difficult to read in its honesty about the notions of the time (particularly in reference to the native population). The protagonist Charles Marlow’s attitude was both empathetic and yet still deeply racist from a modern perspective.
More than anything, the four texts gave a brutal insight into a mindset that, at that time, would have been considered almost garishly progressive, and now appears equally discriminatory.
I had very mixed feelings for this book. The introduction gave me context on the racial politics that followed the publications of these stories, as well as Conrad’s own horror at the atrocities he personally witnessed in the Congo, which fuelled his disgust for European imperialism, and the stories themselves seemed to shed light upon these beliefs and experiences.
I was entirely captivated by ‘An Outpost of Progress’, which I think will remain with me for a very long time. I found ‘Karain: A Memory’ and ‘Youth: A Narrative’ entirely forgettable and almost droning in narrative style, though this might have been due to them following such an excellent first story. Because of this, I was sceptical as I launched into ‘Heart of Darkness’, but found it intense, captivating, and at times difficult to read in its honesty about the notions of the time (particularly in reference to the native population). The protagonist Charles Marlow’s attitude was both empathetic and yet still deeply racist from a modern perspective.
More than anything, the four texts gave a brutal insight into a mindset that, at that time, would have been considered almost garishly progressive, and now appears equally discriminatory.