Rating: 
Summary: Nightmare!
Review: Yes, there is an important point to this novel, but you have to dig so deep in order to find it. It is obvious that Conrad was afraid to really speak his mind because of the controversy and instead he walks a fine line between imperialism and it's victims. Instead he wrote a colections of useless words which are nothing more than giberish. This book had potential.
Rating: 
Summary: you people are crazy
Review: this is a good book. I read it, I liked it. I found it to be the opposite of what many of you said; Gripping and containing a definite climax. It was disturbing, and I know that I will reread it one day. I don't understand how some of you can profess "not to understand 1 single page". even if you don't grasp the whole meaning of the narrative, can't you at least understand what the people are doing? because Conrad isn't vague or ambiguous about that. anyway, I say read it. if you don't, you probably won't be sorry. but if you do, then you probably will think that it's a good thing that you did read it
Rating:
Summary: Don't be ignorant
Review: The reason this book is "convoluted" and "hard to understand" is that it is being told aloud by Marlow; it is written not as a novel but as a spoken story or speech. This "impressionist" style is the reason thoughts and deductions are gone into such depth; Conrad shows the actual thinking process that Marlow underwent in such an emotionally taxing situation.
Rating:
Summary: This book must be taken in the right context
Review: Firstly, I think those who have rated this book low are not quite understanding a couple of things. This is not a pop-culture book. It was not written for mere entertainment like books are now a days. (Don't get me wrong, I 'm not some high and mighty English person, I love pop books, In fact Steve King is one of my fave's) You have to keep in mind that this book was written in 1902, and to understand the book and what it's trying to convey, you have to understand waht was going on in Joseph Conrad's world at the time. Heart of Darkness is not rich in plot. It was written mostly for the purpose of analysis. A lot of things that the reader is supposed to take away are infered. You have to look beyond the surface and read into things that aren't there. There's a lot of thinking and analysis involved. This is why I would not recommend this book to anyone in high school or younger. At that young of an age people have too short of an attention span (I did too) to really take the time to understand what this novella is all about. This is defenitly a "literary" novel in all senses of the term!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't Conrad know we were blind to good literature?
Review: This is a very unusual book, dealing with colonialism, barbarianism, insanity and mental torment. Unfortunetly the Author, Joseph Conrad, has written more than I, and most people will ever be able to grasp with our simple minds that cherish only literal things like M-TV and McDonalds. Yes, I, as a highschool student found this book incredibly tedious and hard to read, but I know that there is so much inside this book. It is a shame that when something truely real comes along, no one is smart enough to realize it. Perhaps Conrad should have known this, since he seems to know so much about the human soul, and not written his book in this unusuall method.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant, prophetic novella
Review: While many of the reviewers have pointed out the dark personal and historical aspects of this wonderful novella, few have noticed that Conrad was amazingly prophetic as well. Written at the turn of the century, Conrad accurately predicted many of the barbarities of the 20th Century--an epoch that tore the mask of civility and progress off Western civilization. In addition to criticizing the brutality and hypocricy of imperialism, Conrad suggests the dangerous allure of it as well. Take a look at the character of the Russian (Kurtz's disciple) and you have a picture of the average German in Nazi Germany--a person so spellbound by the nobility of his "master's" words and ideas as to be blind to the horrendous reality that master creates. And Conrad addresses all these issues (including those mentioned by other reviewers) with incredible subtlety. Unlike a modern novel which would be replete with sex and violence, in Heart of Darkness the violence is off stage and further removed through the use of a narrator. He lets the reader's imagination fill in the blanks--a brilliant way to show the reader just how dark his or her soul is. One of the truly great books of the 20th century.
Rating: 
Summary: The horror! The horror!
Review: This book was very hard to understand. There were too many words. These words cluttered up what was really going on in the book. The only reason why I read it was because I was assigned it for college. If you are having trouble falling asleep, read this book. I guarantee it will put you to sleep.
Rating: 
Summary: I thought it was pretty good
Review: Unlike some of the other readers here, I thought that HEART OF DARKNESS was pretty good. Not that I understood it the first time I read it either, but you can't write it off as "boring" or "pointless" simply because you have to read it more than once. The more I study the novel and the more I read into its depth, the more I understand it. I really wish some people would do the book some more justice and not crave simple one-liners, who think that they know literature because they read Oscar Wilde and J.D. Salinger. They have a word for those people too - "posers."
Rating:
Summary: Challenging, but rewarding book.
Review: "Heart of Darkness" is an excellent book! In order to completely grasp the ideas and theme Joseph Conrad had in mind when writing this book, one must adamantly focus his full attention unto the text. The text may be difficult during some portions of the book, but the final impression one recieves at the end is well worth the struggle!
Rating:
Summary: Yes, this book is dark
Review: If you are assigned to read a book for school and you are looking for one with a small number of pages don't and I repeat don't choose this one. It will take you the whole school year to get through it. It is the most boring book. I am still tramatized from having to read it in high school. Read a George Orwell book, a Joseph Heller book, and Samuel Beckett book, any book just not this one. And if you are reading this for fun well it isn't fun. Basically what this book does in one sentence is: It uses the element of symbolism then forgets to write a story.
|
