Heart of Darkness

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Summary: A light in the darkness of literature
Review: Initially, this novel seemed bland - little more than a superficial narrative. However, with careful and active reading, the novel becomes much more. A battle rages on: Innocent versus evil...but what truly defines innocence? The subplots define this literary work, giving it meaning and substance quite possibly unsurpassed by other works of its time.

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Summary: A Mysterious Read
Review: Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness reveals the tale of a grueling manhunt for a rebel ivory hunter, Colonel Kurtz. Marlow, the man assigned to retrieve him, shares his adventures through the jungle and the hardships he faced in his quest to meet the man that everyone is talking about. His heartfelt journey uncovers just how savage man can get. A must for those who love the thrill of the hunt.

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Summary: a comparison to Apocalypse Now
Review: Ever since I read this book back in high school, I have loved it. It is a true classic in my mind. Conrad uses a variety of characters to portray the types of lifestyles that we live and takes you on a mystic journey into the amazon. It is a true comparison to Apocalypse Now. Definitely a must read. By all means, my review hardly does it justice.

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Summary: A book you won't forget in a hurry
Review: I was once one of those students forced to read this book at school. I was dragged kicking and screaming to its pages and read it only because I did not want to flunk my class. I was riveted from the first page, right up to the last paragraph. It is quite simply Conrad's finest book, (yes, I read his other books after this one.) The story is simple enough, a young Englishman, Marlow goes out to Africa to seek his fortune. He is at first idealistic, and full of himself. However he quickly realises that Africa is full of petty bureaucrats who have no idea how to make use of this dark jewel they have acquired. Like Colonists before them, they proceed to ravage and plunder the land of its natural resources. Enter Kurtz, an Ivory Trader who has gone Native. He has become a Renegade, living with his Black mistress in the heart of Africa's interior; systematically turning his back on his supposed civilised self. Marlow meets him after an eventful trip up the Congo and finds himself curiously attracted to this strange man who is dying, and obviously going insane. Kurtz in turn is an embarrassment to his employers who would rather see him dead than returned to "civilization." Of course this is unspoken, and the hypocrisy of human natures sticks out like a sore thumb in this novel, especially as Kurtz is one of the best Ivory Traders on the Congo route. Marlow struggles to understand Kurtz and what makes him tick, but he only touches the surface of a man who can live in neither the Black or White world comfortably. He has been corrupted by both worlds and therefore he is cursed. Heart of Darkness has many facets; it is a story about Imperialism, racism, and the darkness of human nature. Conrad purposely leaves the ending open to interpretation. What is the "horror" that Kurtz whispers with his dying breath, is it Africa herself with the depths that have yet to be uncovered, or is it the human psyche with all its viciousness as it greedily crushes a land and people into submission? This is a book that will make you think, make you want to it re-read again and again in case you have missed anything. There are also some genuinely funny moments in the book such as the Doctor who measures skulls for a hobby and the pompous Trading Post clerk who teaches his Black maid to starch his clothes. This edition, (Dover Thrift) is well worth getting as well, as it is cheap and cheerful and it definitely won't break the bank money wise.

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Summary: A Book That Forces Man to Question his Values
Review: Through his gloomy tone and extensive use of imagery, Joseph Conrad reveals the darkness that lie within men's souls in less than a hundred pages. As Marlow--a sea captain disgusted with the copious ignorance around him--recalls his experience of finding Kurtz--a brilliant prodigy turned mad by the wilderness--deep in the heart of Africa, Conrad presents dual plots in his story. The first plot, Marlow's search for Kurtz, wonderfully illustrates the surrender to madness in those around Marlow as they both travel further into the "Heart of Darkness." Likewise, the second plot--Kurtz's life--delves the reader into the ingenious and penetrating mind of a man changed forever by the wild. As a result, the life of Marlow, Kurtz, and every other character changes greatly. After reading this book, one might question the civility of both man and his maker...

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Summary: The Unfathomable Fathom
Review: Known as Conrad's most enigmatic and haunting work, this 1902 psychological thriller continues to pluck strings deeply planted in the human heart. Story of a young Englishman Marlow's adventure up the Congo River, Conrad paints a surreal yet harshly concrete tale evolving around the disturbances of the spirit. Marlow narrates his encounter (mental and physical) with the unfathomable Kurtz, a half-English, half-French ivory trader in the heart of Dark Africa yet to be explored. Long before Kurtz even takes shape and dictates his own path, his life is sewn into the lush landscape and told by despairing pioneers who worship the very characteristics that drive Kurtz to madness-the ambition to crown Western colonialism with the last uncharted puzzle of humanity. His impenetrable nature, more so than Congo it seems, dazzles and puzzles the natives as well as the whites who attempt to gain a better sense of identity through supremacism. Kurtz's ability to exert control over men and rule spiritually without physical manipulation is revealed as Marlow's own troubled spirit fuses into Kurtz's whirlpool of obsession to conquer and glorify brutality of another sort. Thus as Marlow ventures upstream towards Kurtz's quarter, appalled and fascinated by Kurtz's ominous sense of balance in a world of cannibals. Again, men who come hoping to conquer and penetrate, find not virgin soul ready to be sown with Western seeds, but the ultimate unconquerable and impenetrable in their own frail heart too shielded from the naked truth of life. Here, in Congo, Kurtz loses sanity as he is forced to stoop when he is conquered and penetrated by the harshness of Africa and its beaming beastliness that also roars underneath his pale skin. Marlow, as the sole heir to Kurtz's memory as a "hero", returns with a tale of desperation and of hate. Desperation and hate not of one person, but of one race/one world whose conscience is forever scarred by what they cannot fathom-darkness within themselves.

"For me it crawled towards Kurtz-exclusively... deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

Rating:
Summary: I would give this 4.5
Review: I hate to give away anything to people reading this for a review. To say this book was "lazy" is unfair, and moral ambiguity might apply to Kurtz (I still doubt this -- we know too little besides heresay!) but definitely not to Marlow.

Conrad wrote this as a story being told through the eyes of a sailor (Marlow). As we learn second and third hand about Kurtz, we never fully get a picture of what he was prior to the jungle. We also learn about Marlow, an ordinary man, somewhat sailor who was given an assignment he wasn't fully prepared to deal with, but then again who is? Marlow struggles with the concept of "the savages" and yet at one point comes to the realization that they are "kinship" to him.

In the process of looking at Kurtz, the jungle, the people he does seem to drift away from his preconcieved notions of morality...and yet, the fact Marlow is aware of this suggests it is not ambiguous, but relative. Morality not just in thought, but also in action when he manages to stay with Kurtz's "Intended" despite his feelings of despair and urges to leave. He can't speak the truth, one that would absolutely ruin a person.

This is only one take, you can have tons. There isn't an easy way to summarize this story in a paragraph. But to say it was a story about a guy named Kurtz in the jungle misses some of the more subtle points.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, yet torturous and morally bankrupt
Review: By now in my life of reading, I've come to accept that many of the world's "great works of fiction" are more concerned with carefully examining some moral concept than telling a story and making a point. Heart of Darkess is just such a work. As Verlyn Klinkenborg says in his introduction, "physical and moral suffering is the very substance of this book." There is no point being made directly... Only obliquely, I suppose, the point is: morality is ambiguous.

Charlie Marlow, the narrator and principal actor in the tale, tells us of his riverborne journey into the depths of some remote African wilderness. A journey into the "heart of darkness." A dark place it is, too. His purpose is to come face-to-face with a man named Kurtz, who has gone into the darkness as something of a prodigal newcomer, but has become enveloped and blackened by the savage wilderness he came to tame.

If I can divine any direct purpose, it's to examine the moral edge between civilization and savagery. The two realms are so inherently contradictory, that the forces pushing against the edges are likely to be stronger than almost any man. Even great men. The most 'remarkable man' in the tale is Kurtz, and he is clearly weaker than these edge forces. They contort him into something of an über-savage, while his civilized soul recognizes the abomination of it all. His dying words sum it up: "the horror, the horror."

My personal trouble with the novel is that it only goes so far as to examine, but never resolve. In Klinkenborg's words, "Heart of Darkness presents you with a series of moral conundrums which continue to feel like conundrums even after you've finished the book. It's greatness...lies in the torturous irresolution...of the moral dilemmas raised one after another... That irresolution is the essense of Conrad's artistic vision. 'The only legitimate basis of creative work', he exmplained in a letter... 'lies in the courageous recognition of all the irreconcilable antagonisms that make our life so engimatic, so burdensome, so fascinating, so dangerous, so full of hope.'"

In the end, Conrad is taking the nihilistic position that there is no resolution. No answers, only conundrums. He has done a very good job of breathing life into this position, and constructing a world where there is no ground for moral truths. For the purpose of seeing this view, the tale is worth reading. As a guide to charting one's own morality, Heart of Darkness is lazy at best, and insidiously corrupt at worst.

Rating:
Summary: The horror.......the horror.....
Review: As a book which provided the structural framework for the movie "Apocalypse Now," Conrad's novel is surprisingly lacking in violence. What it is, however, is an abosorbing story that deals with the infamous existentialist idea of "authenticity" in one's approach to life.

The book has sundry mesmerizing lines which describe how the main character feels as though he is being swallowed up by the savage jungle while on his mission to find Kurtz. It also fulfills one of the most remarkable journey to the underworld motifs of any hero's adventure that I have ever read. Those who subscribe to Jungian literary criticism as well as the ideas of Joseph Campbell (one of Jung's disciples) will come to crave this novel (as I did). Speaking of Campbell, the "threshold" of the trek is also quite memorable as well.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a novel that captures the pulse of the major themes that were being expounded in early 20th century literature.

Rating:
Summary: Heart of Darkness - One of the Greatest
Review: I first read Heart of Darkness as a high school student simply because I was told to. At the time I struggled to come to terms with its complexity and failed completely to appreciate the underlying message (despite the best intentions of my english literature teacher) Upon revisiting the novel recently, some 10 years after I first read it, I saw it in a whole new light. It is simply capitvating, an experience that may, to a certain degree, change your entire perspective on life. I recommend this book to all and believe that it is, without doubt, one of the greatest modern works of literature.