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Like many novellas (a piece of literature longer than a short-story but shorter than a novel) 'Heart of Darkness' has a frame, in fact it has two frames with two narrators, the first is an anonymous passengers on a pleasure ship lying at anchor in the mouth of the Thames who listens, together ... Read review
Advantages: one of the gems of English literature, short Disadvantages: none
This novella has one of the highest ratio of meaning per page, the text is only 106 pages long, yet you can get interpretations which are many times longer than the original! Let's look closely at the text without referring to loads of background information and see if we can find out what it is about.
Like many novellas (a piece of literature longer than a short-story but shorter than a novel) 'Heart of Darkness' has a frame, in fact ... ...an anonymous passengers on a pleasure ship lying at anchor in the mouth of the Thames who listens, together with some other men, to Marlow whose business on board isn't quite clear talking about his time as the captain of a steamer on a river in Africa. The function of a frame is twofold: on the one hand the story seems more credible if there's a source that vouches for its being true, on the other hand the frame creates a distance between the reader ... more
This novella has one of the highest ratio of meaning per page, the text is only 106 pages long, yet you can get interpretations which are many times longer than the original! Let's look closely at the text without referring to loads of background information and see if we can find out what it is about.
Like many novellas (a piece of literature longer than a short-story but shorter than a novel) 'Heart of Darkness' has a frame, in fact it has two frames with two narrators, the first is an anonymous passengers on a pleasure ship lying at anchor in the mouth of the Thames who listens, together with some other men, to Marlow whose business on board isn't quite clear talking about his time as the captain of a steamer on a river in Africa. The function of a frame is twofold: on the one hand the story seems more credible if there's a source that vouches for its being true, on the other hand the frame creates a distance between the reader and what is told, the reader can side with the narrator or distrust him.
The tidal currents of the Thames evoke memories of the golden age of discovery, of 'knight-errants' the nation is still proud of, "Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch . . . , bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires." These thoughts on the glory of imperialism aren't attributed to anyone, we can assume that they come from the anonymous passenger.
Marlow, however, has to think of the times when the Romans came to conquer and exploit the unknown land in the north and found themselves surrounded by wilderness, savagery, darkness, the reader gets a completely different view of the process of colonisation and imperialism, Marlow doesn't see any glory in this part of the English history. "The conquest of the earth . . . is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."
But then he adds, "What redeems it is the idea only . . . something you can set up, and bow down before and offer sacrifices to . . . " and this leads us into the story proper. Marlow, an English seaman wants to see and explore a river in Africa which has always fascinated him on maps. He manages to get the job he's dreamt of with a company on the continent, no further details are given besides the short remark that the director "was satisfied with my French. Bon voyage."
The novella was published in 1902, at that time Belgium had a colony in central Africa, the Congo, Marlow becomes the captain of a steamer going up and down the Congo river serving the stations where the ivory the African natives (have to) hunt for the Belgians is collected, counted and then shipped off.
The description of the jungle really puzzles me, several times we read about its 'stillness'. I haven't been to the jungle but from what I know from books and feature films the jungle is very noisy with all the animals screeching, howling, cawing. Yet Conrad's jungle is an impenetrable silent wall. The African natives are stereotyped as ugly, savage cannibals with sharpened teeth constantly rolling their eyes and performing strange rites.
One can get the impression that Conrad only read and heard about the jungle and the Africans but never saw the one or the others himself, but nothing can be farther from the truth. No other writer before or after him has seen more of the world, I remembered this from my uni days but looked up his biography to verify details.
He was born Teodor Josef Konrad Nalecz Korzenikowski (ciao doesn't accept Polish letters)in (then) Polish Ukraine in 1857 (he died in 1924), at the age of 16 he joined the French merchant navy and then continued his career for 16 years in the British merchant navy. At the age of 36 he settled down in England to become a writer in English, his third language which he had begun to learn only when he was 21 (!).
What is important for this review: in 1890 he took a job as captain of a river steamer in the Congo. Why then is the description of the landscape and the people living there not more vivid? I skimmed through several reviews but nowhere the silent jungle was mentioned; am I the only one to be puzzled by it? Obviously it wasn't Conrad's intention to write about the Congo and her people as a natural scientist would do, they appear as mere scenery in front of which he lets his European protagonists act out their personal drama.
Marlow meets a strange bunch of Whites at the stations on the river who've left their home country to make a fortune, greed is their motive. They treat the Africans outrageously, from the choice of words Marlow uses it's clear that he disapproves. Yet, the Africans don't appear as individuals, we are made to understand that imperialism is bad in general, but we only get to see its effect on the Whites.
The climax of the story is Marlow's trip to the Inner Station where he meets its leader Kurtz, a gifted poet and painter, a megalomaniac genius, one of those men who went out with an 'idea', the most successful hunter of ivory the company has ever had which will make him a success back home one day or so he thinks. What the confrontation with the core of Africa where he's thrown back on himself and his values has done to this man is spine chilling.
Does what Kurtz experiences have anything to do with our lives? I think every reader can ask themselves the question in how far civilisation is a corset and how they'd react in case it were gone. We read about people in extreme situations in the news all the time, what makes them survive or break down?
Recently, African critics like Chinua Achebe have pointed out that in this novella Africa is reduced 'to a metaphor for that which white Europeans fear within themselves. The people of Africa and the land they live in remain inscrutably alien, other'. The title, they argue, implies that Africa is the 'heart of darkness,' where whites who 'go native' risk releasing the 'savage' within themselves. Defenders of Conrad argue that the narrator does not speak in Conrad's own voice, and that a layer of irony conceals his true views, well, if that is the case, it doesn't come over, I at least didn't detect any irony.
Of course, this is not a political treatise on the brutality of Belgian imperialism but a piece of literature, reading it one should savour the language, motifs, symbols, the choice of words. One example: Mr. Kurtz's name: the adjective 'kurz' means 'short' in German, he's a tall man, though, this 'one the hand hand/on the other hand' characterises his ambiguous character, in fact ambiguity is a recurrent motif in the novella.
In my opinion anybody whose mother tongue is English should read this literary gem at least once in their lives. I can't say that I love this book, it impresses me as a literary achievement of the highest quality, I admire it as I would admire a painting for its craftsmanship. Why don't I love it for this and for the questions raised here which are of universal importance? Maybe it's the exoticness of the story which moves it too far away from my world.
Penguin Modern Classics 111 pages 1.50 GBP
P.S. Please don't leave comments showing (off) that you know that the film Apocalypse Now is based on the novella, this is a book review.
Advantages: A story that tells you a lot about yourself if you'll only let it Disadvantages: A bit difficult to read at times
...had to read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for my University degree and will admit that I personally found it quite tough going, despite the book being ever so short in length, 111 pages in fact. After writing a 2000 word essay on a particular aspect of the book however I found myself being drawn into the story and have know come to if not like at least respect the book.
When Marlow was a young child he would spend hours staring at the blanks ... ...will lead him into the heart of an immense darkness. Like I said earlier I found this book rather tough going when I first read it. The reason for this wasn't language or strange sentence structure but simply the content of the novel. I felt disgusted almost by the way the native population were often described and at times almost angry that the book was still being published. Looking back now, after finishing my essay, I realise why the book is ...
MI9to5 26.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Advantages: Great prose style, interesting plot Disadvantages: Some archaic attitudes hiding away
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is one of those works of literature that everyone means to read, but generally never gets round to. Having re-read the book, I’m now asking myself why I’ve not got around to reading any more of Conrad’s work, as he’s a marvellous writer. I suspect that the answer is that I’ve got too much else vying for my attention on my bookshelf at the moment, but I really ought to add some more Conrad to the queue. Surely a standard ... ...For its time (the 1890’s), Heart of Darkness is surprisingly advanced in terms of its attitudes. Through Marlow, Conrad repeatedly questions the predominant attitudes to the African people who have been enslaved, either officially or in practice, by white man’s activities on ‘the dark continent.’ Yet Marlow is not allowed to break completely free of the thought pattern that assets white superiority and ultimately regards his black brothers as inferior, ...
DavidBedford 30.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Advantages: Evocative and disturbing Disadvantages: Sometimes difficult
...disturbing.
I have read Heart of Darkness a few times, both for pleasure and as a study text. The first time I read it I didn't know what to make of it. At some stages I struggled to get through the descriptive paragraphs and I had no idea what to make of Kurtz or Marlowe. For many readers I can easily imagine that any appreciation of Conrad would end and the book would collect dust having been discarded as overhyped and pretentious. This is a big ... ...by line. I now find Heart of Darkness to be a most fascinating tale of both colonialism and humanity at the turn of the century.
I also benefitted from studying the historical context in which Conrad was writing. At the turn of the century there were a number of crises affecting the thoughts of intellectual circles in Europe. The sub-plots of Conrad's work express concerns with many of these issues and explain why Heart of Darkness is discussed ...
temf 05.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Advantages: good characterisation, usually cheap Disadvantages: a bit thin perhaps and the ending could be better
This book as many people will know was the inspiration for the film 'Apocalypse Now'.
It is set in the jungles of Africa in the nineteenth century, Congo specifically. The theme of the book is basically the change wrought on humans by their environment. The transposition to Vietnam in the film is merely a reflection of the different preoccupations of the time.
America in the Seventies was involved with its hegemonic empire most manifestly in Vietnam. ... ...deeply in Africa.
The novel and the film deal with the obsessions developed by these places. They are seen to be manifestly different and beyond the application of usual western norms nad mores. Things which at home the main characters might never have dreamed of themselves doing they undertake here (whether it be Vietnam or the Congo).
This theme is something that cropped up many times in the writings of nineteenth century explorers in Africa. ...
oclumhain 28.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
I read Heart of Darkness because it was described as an unmissable read, something you have to read if you have any interest in classic literature.
Unfortunately I was disappointed.
There is no doubt that the novel is well written and the storyline is of significance, but that doesn't make it any easier to read.
I couldn't relate to any of the characters so that made it a painful read as I wasn't excited about what might happen. This wasn't helped ... ...novels that are very descriptive, but this one goes into lots of detail. It does help with making the many points that the novel brings to your attention, but to me it reads as something that is interesting to study and will give you good points on any essay you might write about it for school, but as a book to read for fun I wouldn't recommend it. ...
meday 17.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
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