5 stars for Heart of Darkness and 3s/4s for the rest. ( )

This is one of the most densely packed, richly worded books I have ever read. A journey into the darkness of human nature and the soul. While at the same time expressing the futility of its own communication, this is a genius piece of work, a must read for absolutely everyone. ( )

could not get into it... ( )

With only 84 pages this is very much a novella, rather than a novel, but into those 84 pages Conrad fits such a lot. There is more to think or argue about in these few pages than in most books that are five times its length or longer...

Heart of Darkness starts as a simple traveller's tale as the narrator Marlow relates the story of his travels to take control of a steamship on an unnamed African river (clearly the Congo) working for an unnamed colonial power (clearly Belgium). From his very first days in the territory Marlow hears tales of 'Mr Kurtz', an agent in the most remote district: a remarkable man according to everyone he meets, but the reason for this remarkability remains vague and shadowy. And as Marlow attempts to repair the steamship which he is to captain, which has been badly damaged, the name of Kurtz continues to haunt him as rumours abound of his activities. Marlow finds himself becoming more and more disillusioned with the brutality of the colonists, but as a mission is launched upriver to relieve Mr Kurtz, he discovers more horrors awaiting him as the ship proceeds towards Kurtz's station ...

This is a book that has been considered at times as racist, condemned as such particularly by the writer Chinua Achebe. If you extract it from the end of the nineteenth century and drop it down at the beginning of the twenty-first without any consideration of the context in which it was written then it could well be considered racist. The language used and the opinions expressed are not those that would be used today. But I don't think that you can extract a book or a writer from their contexts, and there are clear indications in the text, as well as in Conrad's own life, that show him to have held relatively enlightened opinions and to be intensely opposed to the colonial experience in the Congo on which Heart of Darkness is based.

There are so many connections in this book, so many ways in which it could be read, that I can see myself reading it again and again. Highly recommended. ( )

I read HoD in high school, and mainly remembered that my teacher went to great lengths to make us understand the absurdity of all existence etc etc... Then I talked about it in college, and mainly remember Theorists going to great lengths to make me understand the immorality of writing about Africans if you're not and African etc etc... And I just re-read it as a nearly thirty year old and thought: what's all the fuss about? It's straightforwardly an anti-imperialistic squib. Not the greatest shit ever, not even the second best book by Conrad - compare Lord Jim and Nostromo - but pretty good, pretty funny, and absolutely vicious.
I guess if you're really set on believing that this is a literary masterpiece, you have to give it either five stars or one: either to convince yourself it is, or to complain that it isn't. Just read it as a good little novella, and you'll enjoy it a lot more. And if you're really set on reading it as if all of humanity is ultimately completely f'ed, you also have to give it either five stars or one: either to underline, in ominous freshman terms, that it is; or to strenuously screech, in blathering self-help terms, that it isn't. If you suspect that at many times some of us are f'ed... well, I'm with you.

Also, the other stories in this edition are decent, not great. 'An Outpost of Progress' is even more pessimistic and anti-imperialist than HoD, and funnier, especially if you've read Bouvard et Pecuchet. 'Karain' isn't so great. 'Youth,' even more than HoD, highlights Conrad's 'ability' to beat a theme to death. Not his greatest asset, that's for sure. ( )