Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.
We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own terrible experience in the Congo.
This work has been reinterpreted and adapted into many modern forms, the most well known being the film Apocalypse Now.
Heart of Darkness
Reviewer Breneh
February 09, 2008
The book is interesting enough, as a recollection of someone else's story; although the words used in the text are somewhat hard to plow through, only because we, don't you see, you and I—(we)-- mere mortal souls in the 21st century, do not talk, or even think of speaking.. this way any longer!
Okay, so I am poking some fun into the bleak story.
It was great to follow along in the book as the narrator read so I could better grasp the words quickly and not get caught up in their meaning and pronunciation, as I surely would have, if without the narrator reading aloud. Good book, next I have to watch Apocalypse Now to compare the two pieces of literature.