Heart of Darkness

Rating:
Summary: I must be missing something
Review: I really wanted to like this book - honestly. I finished it this morning on the train while riding into work and after I was done I closed it, put it in my bag, and it was almost immediately gone from my conscience. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about the book that bothered me. How something so densely written can be so bland is beyond me. Conrad started to get my attention a few times, he really did. For instance, I was quite happy when the natives started shooting arrows at the boat. Not that I'm some simpleton that needs action and gore to be happy - that's not it at all. There was another reader that implied Conrad didn't speak his mind entirely - I think that's part of what bothered me. He'd start to to get to a point, and then lose it. I wanted to like this book because I love classics, but this did absolutely nothing for me. And if I had seen the word "gloom" or a variation of it one more time, I would have died by spontaneous combustion.

Rating:
Summary: Are we Marlow or Kurtz...or both?
Review: When I finished the book I could not decide exactly on what happened. The profound, deep symbolism in this short novel trascends its natural limits, and derives us to another angle of thought. Kurtz it's not just him; is all of us trying to fight adversity, unknown realms (territories also of our soul) gasping something, believing we are dominating it, and then..the horror, the horror

Marlow is our leader: he pushes us to the heart of Africa (our heart, our nervous system?), to the vast unknown, longing in finding our heroe, and, in the process, becoming one ourselves.

This novel expands our conscience (if we know how to read what's not written) permits to get in touch with our innerself, find the horror, but defeat it, and start each day with the unmistakable knowledge that we start over again, and that all depend on us; on how do we plan the journey. We must not just walk, we have to go...

Rating:
Summary: Watch Apocalypse Now
Review: Heart of Darkness was the most boring book I've ever read. I would have never finished the thing had it not been a requisite for my English class. English being his non-native language, Conrad lulls the reader to sleep. I could not extract any value from the plot due to his vagueries. I much prefer Martin Sheen in Vietnam. Now there's a guy who'll teach you a thing or two. Watch Apocalypse Now.

Rating:
Summary: Darkness imprisoning me...
Review: Well, indeed the novel gives the reader an immense feeling of darkness as he/she traverses through the short novel's odyssey. Upon finishing the story, one feels as though one's entire environment is surrounded in darkness. Looking outside at the sunny day, taking a walk, or giving help to charity are all futile attempts to escape the newly digested darkness the reader has swallowed. Conrad is a master of bringing out the dark side in everyone. Marlow knows he can never escape this darkness, yet he makes an impressive attempt through the relating of this narrative itself.
Marlow's account of the story is the first time anyone has heard of Kurtz' actual outcome/fate. Thus the narrative gives Marlow the chance to tell this story to a certain group on the Nellie. Since the group (more than 1 person) digests the truth via this narrative they can then in turn outweigh the lie Marlow told to 1 person--Kurtz' Intended. Such an outweighing helps to somewhat free Marlow from the burden he has carried since his prevarication. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: Conrad is brilliant
Review: This is the story that inspired apocalypse now yet it tells it in a far more diverse fashion. You really are plunged into Marlow's thoughts about the consiquences of colinization and the legacy of it. Marlow sets sail down the congo river and discovers himself by exploring the dark world of the natives and their invaders who take advantage of their naiviety. So beautifully written with prose that leave you breathless.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: True, this novel is short, but do not let that take away from its splendor. The story itself is great, but the method of telling the story is far greater. Joseph Conrad illustrates a mastery of the English language rivaling Shakespeare (and English is his third language!)-- Marlow's narration of his tale and the tale of the haunting Kurtz expemplifies a brilliant and chilling depiction through imagery; never before has "darkness" carried so much connotation. I would strongly recommend this book to any soul that is enchanted by the artform of prose and desires to delve into some of the dark mysteries surrounding human nature -- the brute and primitive bestiality of man confronted with the isolation of darkness.

Rating:
Summary: Into the vacuum poured the primal force of the cosmos.....
Review: When Kurtz exclaims "The Horror! The Horror!", it is in the same sense that we would also cry out if suddenly faced with the unshielded countenance of God. At the threshhold, just before we were either consumed, or absorbed, this too would be our cry.

This most remarkable of books is a dissection of the Western psyche. We start with the capital city of the living dead in Europe itself. This is a land of sleepwalkers who have never awakened- they live out their lives spinning castles in the air that ultimately mean nothing. This is the state of the modern Western mind. Theory and profit, but no soul. On the journey down the African coast we encounter the European battleship antiseptically shelling the coast. These are tranplanted westerners hiding in the shells of their technological terrors while lobbing shells into the outer world- without really being contaminated by it. Then we reach the coast, where the high ideals preached in Europe are more and more obviously abandoned the farther inland one travels. When the land and the natives become "difficult", pure force and brutality are used to overcome and destroy. In other words, if they will not be "westernised", turned into copies of us, they must be obliterated. Preferably while making us a profit.
Kurtz was a strong man. He was ambitious and powerful. Perhaps he kept up the charade of "civilising" the natives and the land in the name "progress" longer than anyone else. He kept up these empty lies until he penetraded to the deepest core of the primeval jungle. And then, this hollow shell of ideals and greed imploded. You see, as Conrad points out, Kurtz was fundamentally hollow. Yet Kurtz didn't just die, he was too strong. Instead, into that vacuum rushed the primal force itself. Kurtz became what he hated the most- he became the soul of the jungle- because he had none of his own. He became an "animal" in it's highest sense, a totally natural man. Indeed he became a natural King, as the native tribes recognised. He and the land were truly one.
It is a mistake to judge Kurtz by the standards of the city of the dead. Kurtz and his warriors sweeping across the jungle, taking heads and ivory as trophies, was as natural as lions running down gazelles.... Far more natural than the hypocritical, brutal, soulless, enslavement of the coastal natives in the name of "civilisation".....

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This novel is boring. Not only that, but it's hard to follow. I suppose I am just not a lover of English literature. Dickens has always been a dread to me. It's no surprise that Heart of Darkness is no different in my mind. While the novel has some deep meanings, they are hidden by the unnessary verbose writing style of the author.

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps one of the best books in the English language
Review: Can one sufficiently praise this book without sounding false? Conrad is a masterful writer and a genius for finding the exact word (a point of criticism for those who say this makes him read like he's been translated from another language, but a point to savour for the lover of language). His precise word choice does not make this book or its ideas any less ambiguous or shallow, however. This one will get deep into the flesh of your mind and simmer there as you try to find a concrete understanding of the ideas suggested. A must read for anyone literate.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: I thought that Heart of Darkness was an excellent book that everyone should read. I portrays every single persons true self, there sense of darkness and treachery in the world. Not every person you meet shows there sense of darkness, but this book displays how there is a feeling in that amongst all of us. Joseph Conrad shows a lot of feelings that some humans experience, like racism, and insanity. This book takes you for a real roller coaster ride. If you liked Heart of Darkness, you should see the movie Apocalypse Now. This movie is exactly the same thing as this except it's in a different time period. This novella is a story about Marlow and is adventure through the Congo River. As Marlow goes down the river, he encounters several obstacles that make him realize the true threat of the Congo River. The plot and the themes of the story are difficult to understand but eventually it can be grasped. The only attribute I particularly didn't like about the book was the extreme detail that Conrad shows in the book. I thought that he could have summed up most of the stories details to a shorter version. All and all it was a very interesting book.