Heart of Darkness

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Summary: AMAZING AND DARK!!
Review: This is a gripping tale about man's fear of the unknown, set in the Congo jungle in the 1800's. I was felt as if I was literally transported to another time and place; I could hear the crickets crick and feel the bugs and the heat and the terror. A must read. This is not merely a commentary on Western colonialism but a philosophical masterpiece. There is a heart of darkness in all of us and the character of Kurtz, to me, is a representation of man's awe of the unknown, the unattainable, reveared, unreachable beyond. Read this book immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: I read Heart of Darkness when I was 19 and at that time it was one of my favorite novels because I loved how Conrad described a world. His use of language, phrasing, and his vocabulary were intoxicating. I never had a problem reading these 'literaryEbooks and never needed a dictionary by my side - and I was a teenager when I read them. Yet, it seems younger people - say those in their 20s and younger - have vastly inferior vocabularies. Are the school systems that poor these days? It is a sad day when people say they have trouble reading these books. I guess too much TV watching and not enough quality reading.

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Summary: Make it stop!
Review: I have to read Heart of Darkness for English (I'm in Yr 11). I am currently about one-fifth of the way through, and was happy when I saw the length of the book (around 100 pages, it should be easy, right?) Also, having previously seen Apocolypse Now (an okay movie, if a tad long - based on Heart of Darkness) I thought it shouldn't be to hard to read the book.

However, boy, was I wrong. It is written in an annoyingly complex language, although at times the descriptions are rather hazy, leaving an uneven feel to the book. I am finding myself having to constantly re-read many paragraphs just to find out what Conrad was even talking about.

In fact, it is getting so painful, I now know the meaning of torture. I'm sure they would use this in police interrigations if it were'nt for the fact that it is just as painful for the reader as it is to the poor soul who would have to suffer from hearing it read aloud.

I just want it to end. Please, make it stop.

Rating:
Summary: Short but Long
Review: The book is actually short compared to many other books of similar difficulty, yet requires more time to read than one might expect. There are many metaphors and deeper meanings you need to think about to totally understand the book. When reading it, I also found that a large dictionary can be quite useful, because Conrad has an extensively large vocabulary. I would rate it a 5, but this book was too difficult to read through smoothly.

Rating:
Summary: Keep riveted to rivets
Review: Words of advice, c/o Joseph Conrad: if you don't want to be consumed by the darkness, keep riveted to rivets. Dig it? It's simple, but it works.

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Summary: review for mr felt
Review: heart of darkness was a short but very intriguing novel. joseph conrad wrote in such depth and really made you think about every word, and what you just had read. It all starts out with a steamboat captain named marlow, who tells his story. MArlow tells of a story were he gets the job as a steamboat captain and meets a man named mr. Kurtz. a man who sends in a lot of ivory.
when Marlow finally gets to he steamer, he learns that it has been sunk, and is in need for repair. Yet he expects it to be intentional, so that he will not be reaching kurtz. IT takes up to 3 months to dredge out the ship. On one perticular evening, he overhears 2 men discussing kurtz. Marlow hears word that all the donkeys on a certain expedition have dide, and forces it to stop. By now his ship is nearly complete, and he can ,ake his way up the river to Kurtz. It isa dangerous river, and the trip will be difficult. He will only make it with the help of the natives, wich are proved to be cannabils, yet they are reasonable people. all through the night u can hear the tribes drums and occasionally see them. Marlow almosts feels a sense of kinship between him ans the savages. 50 miles away from kurstz, the steamer spots a hut with stacks of wood, they take aboard the wood, and carry on. 2 days later, there are only 8 miles from kurtz a strange silence and stilness follows a heavy fog. out in the distance, they hear a loud cry followed by voices. the crewman prepare for attack. Marlow doesnt wanty to continue in the fog because of the risk of crashing. they are one and a half miles from kurtz, when arrows come flying from the bushes, they are under attack. the crew opens fire on them, and the helsman star shooting from the window. The helsman is caught in the crossfire, and is killed by a spear. At this point, marlow tells his friends what kurtz is like. at this time, marlow is unsure whether or not kurtz was worth the fallen lives. he blames all the deaths on the own peoples. then a russian man on the shore tells them to come over,and that he knows theve been attacked, but that they are safe now. tyhis is the man whose wood they found, so they return it and greet eachother. the russian wants kurtz gone and begs marlow to take him away. none of the traders trust him. at this time, kurtz is brough out on a stretcher. marlow looks aout and sees his crew guarding ivory, but notices that kurtz has escaped to the natives. but marlow finds hiom and brings him back. the steamer departs the next day aat noon. on the way back, kurtz dies, and so they bury him. marlow becomes ill, but recovers,and returns to brussels. and this is were the story ends.

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Summary: When the Thin Veneer is Stripped Away
Review: Colonial powers have always intervened, occupied and suppressed the inhabitants in weaker countries for their own reasons, whether it be for gold, oil, saving souls, lebensraum, bases, or "regime change". Their actions, even the massacres and destruction, were always for "the good of the people". No country ever lacked a good excuse to hide their true motives. People in the metropolitan countries have always gone about their business with no inkling of the realities being perpetuated in their names across the seas or over the mountains. The Belgians in the Congo, between 1880 and 1908, created a colonial nightmare, one of the worst that ever existed. Conrad travelled there. HEART OF DARKNESS is a slightly-disguised version of his own experiences, one of the most powerful indictments of European behavior beyond public scrutiny that was ever written. The book is suffused with the feeling of abomination, of unspeakable cruelties being perpetuated by men so banal or greedy that they hardly perceived what they were doing. They talked of philanthropy, but dreamed only of making money and getting out. European behavior in Congo was all a pretence. Shall we talk of Conrad's powerless disgust ? How many writers have referred to Conrad's description of a French ship shelling the bush, shooting up the jungle, not even knowing if anyone was there ? A senseless act of men who understood nothing of Africa, nothing of themselves. As Marlow, the narrator, tells of the bureaucratic preparations for his voyage to Congo, the reader begins to sink into the pit of No Meaning---the senseless procedures, the absurd warnings and tests. The rusted, crumbling railways in Congo that had never worked, the useless holes, the dumps of destroyed or wasted equipment symbolize, like the endless heaps of slaughtered buffalo on the American plains, the incomprehension of Westerners as to how to deal with an unfamiliar society and environment. Conrad acknowledges early on that he "would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly."

As Marlow preceeds up the river, he comes closer to the world of Kurtz, a mysterious man who had given himself over to elemental passions-violence, greed, cruelty, sex-leaving the world of his past far behind. He is at home there, in the heart of darkness-not Africa, the unjustly-named Dark Continent, but that dark pit that exists in every human's soul. Kurtz had "gone over", allowing barbarous instincts to surface, treasuring them, savoring them. He had gone mad. Conrad writes not only of the madness of Europeans in the Congo in the last years of the 19th century, but of the savagery so close to the surface in people of all nations. Do I have to make a list here ? We have seen enough in our days. Still, Conrad does not condemn Kurtz as the worst, just as a dictator is not the only guilty party in his regime. Kurtz was, at least, true to his nature, while other whites remained evil-doing hypocrites who lived in pretence, refusing to recognize Africans as fellow humans. The last scene brings home Conrad's feeling more than any other and might be familiar to many people who have tried and failed to explain times and places beyond the ken of listeners. Kurtz's intended bride, back in Belgium, is sure that she understood the man better than anyone, saying to Marlow that her fiance was "a good, talented man". She has not, cannot have, any inkling of his true nature and Marlow cannot get himself to tell her. Asked for Kurtz' last words, wbich were "The horror, the horror", he reports that Kurtz had murmured her name. And with that, we truly understand that Marlow had looked into the heart of darkness. One of the handful of truly classic works of world literature. You can't afford to miss it.

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Summary: New Skipper Saves Swimmer, Shows Moxie
Review: REVIEW OF THE SECRET SHARER
Joseph Conrad wrote a number of classic novels. This is one of them. Like some sort of literary health tonic packed full of vitamins, minerals, and health-restoring properties, , THE SECRET SHARER contains enough symbolism, ideas, and plot to keep analysts busy for centuries. It is full of sea lore, the nature of flat, tropic seas. It is hard to find an original thing to say in review, so much has been already written. The author operated at three levels. He wrote an adventure story about an escaping murderer who "didn't mean to do it". The narrator, a sea captain on his first command, discovers Legatt, the murderer, in the sea beside his (the captain's) ship, saves him, hides him, and sympathizes with his predicament. They had gone to the same school in Britain, but did not know each other. Legatt's rescuer engages in all kinds of schemes and dissembling to prevent his discovery. Finally, the narrator-captain orders his ship off course, risks running aground, but helps Legatt to escape to a jungled Southeast Asian island. On a second level, Conrad makes the reader weigh the rights and wrongs of these actions. Such behavior-hiding a wanted man---is totally contrary to what is expected of a ship's captain; thus a terrible conflict is introduced into the story at once. Conrad introduces many pros and cons---Legatt did save his ship in a storm and committed the murder while doing so. He was given his seaman's job through pull, though, not through skill, and so, perhaps, was not equal to the captain, who had worked his way up. We have to consider the narrator-captain too, he lies, he behaves in a tricky fashion, and his subsequent erratic behavior undermines the confidence of his men.

Above all, THE SECRET SHARER, at 61 pages, one of the shortest great novels, is a psychological masterpiece. I am hardly the first to note that in fact, the two main characters, the honorable criminal and the criminal honorable man, may be one and the same. Legatt may be the narrator's alter-ego, the embodiment of his fears about his first command, guiding a ship through treacherous seas, commanding men he does not know. When Legatt jumps into the sea near Koh-ring, the captain realizes that he will be able to successfully command a ship. Legatt may be the captain's subconscious fears come to life, but the latter must hide the escapee as he must hide his fears. You may say that this novel is very cleverly constructed, or else Conrad touched his own subconscious in ways few writers ever have. In either case, it is a work of genius.

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Summary: Who knows our own Hearts of Darkness?
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 English Literature 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.) However be aware, this is not everyone's cup of tea. There will be some people who will read this book and think, "Oh God, you have to be kidding!" However if you can get passed this mentality then you are in for a real literary treat.

The story is simple enough, a young Englishman; Marlow (this character appears in Conrad's story "Youth") 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 Kurtz after an eventful trip up the Congo and finds himself curiously attracted to this strange man who is [very ill], 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 [harmed] 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. ...

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 [inexpensive] and cheerful and it definitely won't break the bank money wise.

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Summary: A real life story
Review: Conrad's story is remarkable, but people tend to ignore the fact that this is based on some real life events. The "whited sepulchre" that Marlow visits is Brussels and the river that he travels up is the Congo. In the nineteenth century King Leopold II of Belgium establshed the Congo as his own personal colony. It was not a colony of Belgium, it belonged soley to Leopold. The atrocities that he committed through his agents there are almost unspeakable. Somewhere aroung 10 million Africans died. For a good account of this read Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost.