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Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer
In this pair of literary voyages into the inner self, Conrad wrote two of the most chilling, disturbing, and noteworthy pieces of fiction of the 20th century. "Heart of Darkness" and "The Secret Sharer" encapsulate his literary achievements--and his haunting portrayal of the dark side of man. Revised reissue.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1910
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About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,084 books4,850 followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 965 reviews
August 15, 2007
read this book for the first time in high school. we explored the novella from the perspective of a young adventurer wandering into the congo...hated it
read it in my death in lit class...provoked some interesting discussions on race...still hated it
read it again for brit lit...talked again about race and imperialism and my professor was so awesome i almost enjoyed the book for a smidgen of a second...but no.
rivets rivets rivets...boring boring boring...this 75 page novella takes more time to read than it would take for me to walk from new york to alaska. its worse now because i know the scenes i whould be looking for (crazy man firing cannonballs into the jungle, marlow describing the africans as "lesser beasts" and harder still, marlow not describing the africans and what does this mean?, london is the impentrable heart of darkness the end) but no...i will always be at odds with HOD.
read it in my death in lit class...provoked some interesting discussions on race...still hated it
read it again for brit lit...talked again about race and imperialism and my professor was so awesome i almost enjoyed the book for a smidgen of a second...but no.
rivets rivets rivets...boring boring boring...this 75 page novella takes more time to read than it would take for me to walk from new york to alaska. its worse now because i know the scenes i whould be looking for (crazy man firing cannonballs into the jungle, marlow describing the africans as "lesser beasts" and harder still, marlow not describing the africans and what does this mean?, london is the impentrable heart of darkness the end) but no...i will always be at odds with HOD.
March 25, 2009
The horror! The horror!
I never understood exactly why this book has been termed a classic and why we still torture school children with it.
I never understood exactly why this book has been termed a classic and why we still torture school children with it.
April 2, 2008
Joseph Conrad makes me think of a Edgar Allen Poe on serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. (Although he is said to have attempted suicide in his late teens so he couldn't have been all that jolly) Most say his writing is dark but I find it funny. Bless my soul! By jove!
What makes me think of Poe is the narrative which is like a constant paranoid obsessive-compulsive interior chatter. But I love the way the characters are outwardly totally in control and collected.
"I smiled urbanely"
Yes he smiled urbanely while hiding a murderer in his cabin not four feet from where he entertained the visiting Skipper!!!!!
"I think I had come creeping quietly as near insanity as any man who has not actually gone over the border...."
Joseph would know.
The horror! The horror!
YES Joseph Conrad is very funny. Marlow can't seem to get any rivets to fix his steamboat as the weeks go past on the Congo, but gets plenty of cheap cotton fabric and plastic beads, while boxes and boxes of rivets sit split open downstream. Military and organizational dysfunction. Or is it the humidity?
"You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down—and there wasn't one rivet to be found where it was wanted.....And several times a week a coast caravan came in with trade goods—ghastly glazed calico that made you shudder only to look at it, glass beads value about a penny a quart, confounded spotted cotton handkerchiefs. And no rivets. Three carriers could have brought all that was wanted to set that steamboat afloat. "
He gets shot at by arrows, ( "They might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they wouldn't kill a cat.") meets a harlequin, sees shrunken heads on spikes through his binoculars, goes through the dark forest and confronts the escaping Kurtz:
"I had immense plans," he ( Kurtz ) muttered irresolutely.
"Yes," said I, "but if you try to shout I'll smash your head with—" There was not a stick or a stone near. "I will throttle you for good," I corrected myself.
September 1, 2020
The Secret Sharer should get more attention than it does. Short but very compelling story.
February 13, 2010
I had a really hard time with this book, even though it wasn't very long. First of all, the constant use of quotation mark (it's a frame story) annoyed me. In addition, the prose wasn't particularly awesome. Sure, there were a couple passages that were memorable, but, on the whole, I wasn't impressed. As for the story, it's about a sailor going up a river in Africa to meet the god-like "Mistah Kurtz." This journey, of course, is a metaphor for a journey into the human soul. I read this book because I thought it would better help me understand T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men. I also understand it is one of precursors to the Modernist movement, so it should definitely be read. I think it's one of those books (I find myself saying this often) that I will re-read and hopefully appreciate more. I probably should have taken more time to read it, and should have gotten my own copy so I could make marks in it. On the whole, I'm glad to be rid of this book, for now. I felt like I was fighting off boredom and incomprehension half the time I was reading it. Have a good day.
Read
September 9, 2018RTC.
February 3, 2008
Just fantastic. Not that anything less from Conrad was expected. But regard for something special should never be taken for granted, nor should it be deprived of its appropriate kudos when time allows.
Masterful narrative. Better than average characters. An amazing story of a place that time may always forget.
I find it funny that many critics cite Conrad's "racism" in regard to the African natives.
For one, frankly, criticizing someone from that era and background for holding black people in lower regard is like critizing people today for using the Internet. Mostly for worse, it was the attitude of the day. We can't do anything about it. Move on.
Also, I hardly doubt Conrad was necessarily being racist to begin with. The color theme of darkness and black I think has less to do with skin color and more to do with culture, progress, lifestyle and general attitudes in a place of the world that is buffered for everything else. It was a culture that put decapitated heads on spits. Tribes who launched arrows and spears at dudes on steamboats, killing people and shit. It was a people who lived in the dark, musty jungles. Jungles rife with the unknown, with death.
I guess "unknown" is the key word here. Darkness doesn't strike fear because it's black, but because you never know when you're going to stub your toe against the dresser or be attacked by a goddamned jaguar. The color of an African's skin is so inconsequential. In fact, that's my part in curing racism in the world -- quit thinking your damned skin color is so important. It isn't! It means bunk! Nobody cares!
Masterful narrative. Better than average characters. An amazing story of a place that time may always forget.
I find it funny that many critics cite Conrad's "racism" in regard to the African natives.
For one, frankly, criticizing someone from that era and background for holding black people in lower regard is like critizing people today for using the Internet. Mostly for worse, it was the attitude of the day. We can't do anything about it. Move on.
Also, I hardly doubt Conrad was necessarily being racist to begin with. The color theme of darkness and black I think has less to do with skin color and more to do with culture, progress, lifestyle and general attitudes in a place of the world that is buffered for everything else. It was a culture that put decapitated heads on spits. Tribes who launched arrows and spears at dudes on steamboats, killing people and shit. It was a people who lived in the dark, musty jungles. Jungles rife with the unknown, with death.
I guess "unknown" is the key word here. Darkness doesn't strike fear because it's black, but because you never know when you're going to stub your toe against the dresser or be attacked by a goddamned jaguar. The color of an African's skin is so inconsequential. In fact, that's my part in curing racism in the world -- quit thinking your damned skin color is so important. It isn't! It means bunk! Nobody cares!
July 5, 2023
The Secret Sharer is a fast-moving, adventurous tale that can be enjoyed as the simple tale it is on the surface or be scrutinized for a deeper meaning. There is a Captain, and there is his double. Both are essentially moral, but both have a secret. They reflect on each other, but will they both be free?
Heart of Darkness was written in a time long before current attitudes. At least Conrad could see the evils of colonialism, and he tried to grasp (and failed, as most books from 1910 will) the sameness of all people. Still, even with contemporary flaws intact, we learn that man's heart can be shrouded in darkness. There must be a price to pay for letting all the greedy, power-hungry, and self-righteous thoughts bubble over in conceit to the destruction of many. Conrad's descriptions, his style, his way with words are phenomenal. This is unlike today, where tight editing tends to prevent excessive wording.
On a personal note, I enjoyed Secret Sharer more than Heart of Darkness. The journey is shorter and more to the point. I immediately watched Apocalypse Now after reading this book. I am glad I did.
Heart of Darkness was written in a time long before current attitudes. At least Conrad could see the evils of colonialism, and he tried to grasp (and failed, as most books from 1910 will) the sameness of all people. Still, even with contemporary flaws intact, we learn that man's heart can be shrouded in darkness. There must be a price to pay for letting all the greedy, power-hungry, and self-righteous thoughts bubble over in conceit to the destruction of many. Conrad's descriptions, his style, his way with words are phenomenal. This is unlike today, where tight editing tends to prevent excessive wording.
On a personal note, I enjoyed Secret Sharer more than Heart of Darkness. The journey is shorter and more to the point. I immediately watched Apocalypse Now after reading this book. I am glad I did.
Read
September 15, 2007Apocalypse Now is my favorite film and it is an excellent adaptation of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I've seen the movie around 80 times and have read the novella at least 12 times. It is a powerful examination of the fine line between civilization and madness and what these things mean to the soul of the individual. In many cases the so-called civilized characters are the most decadent and debased. The story works on you on a subtle but powerful level. A must read for any age.
A side recommendation here: the fantasy writings of Robert E. Howard. Everyone knows the generally crappy films of his characters Conan and Kull but the stories themselves often explore similar themes to Heart of Darkness. His characters are very Existential and human.
A side recommendation here: the fantasy writings of Robert E. Howard. Everyone knows the generally crappy films of his characters Conan and Kull but the stories themselves often explore similar themes to Heart of Darkness. His characters are very Existential and human.
October 3, 2023
3 stars ✨
The horror, the horror!
The horror, the horror!
April 29, 2015
I believe the book's tagline says it all: "The horror, the horror."
I hated this book. HATED. I remember one day when I had done my reading section for English class, not understood a thing, except that they were on a boat and things were happening. Maybe they were being attacked. But in class we kept talking about the man in pink pajamas. I didn't remember any mention of pink pajamas. I could barely force my eyes continue reading the words on the page.
I hated this book. HATED. I remember one day when I had done my reading section for English class, not understood a thing, except that they were on a boat and things were happening. Maybe they were being attacked. But in class we kept talking about the man in pink pajamas. I didn't remember any mention of pink pajamas. I could barely force my eyes continue reading the words on the page.
October 6, 2025
An English language classic; an eyewitness account of atrocities in the Belgium Congo; a misinterpreted English Lit chore ruined by shallow analysis and dogmatic pretentiousness
Joseph Conrad is among my favorite novelists, and Heart of Darkness is by far, my favorite novel... although by definition it is a novella, not a novel, and novellas are my favorite fiction construct. I have read this five or six times and will probably read it five or six more times should I live long enough. I also love the two most famous film "interpretations" of this work, Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, despite neither of them even trying to be a movie adaptation of the novella. They moved the setting to Vietnam and South America respectively. But Coppola stayed true to much of the novel and many scenes in his classic Vietnam War movie do, indeed, come straight from Conrad's story.
Throughout the years, I have been baffled by how few people appreciate Heart of Darkness. There are way too many three or less stars reviews even on Goodreads. Then it dawned on me why: most people were introduced to this novella in an English Lit class--particularly this edition, Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer with one of those English Lit dogmatic deep interpretation Introductions by Literary Scholar and College Professor Franklin Walker. It is practically required reading in most Lit classes. And most English Lit professors have NO idea what the book is about and spend an inordinate time trying to interpret words, symbols, images, yadda yadda, until Heart of Darkness is little more than an existential deep dive into the shallow nothingness of academic shibboleths. SIGH... People, I have a revelation: Heart of Darkness is a story about the Belgium Congo based on Conrad's personal experiences as a river boat pilot on the Congo River. That's all.
Many of the characters are based on real people he met there. Yes, there are real world models for Kurtz. All the mumbo-jumbo about man's inner savage and Kurtz's descent into madness are based on otherwise civilized people Conrad saw commit the most bestial atrocities when placed in remote locations in the bush where they had the authority to play God over the local population but with no accountability for their actions... or worse, encouraged to the most rapacious behavioral extremes by King Leopold II's ravenous quest for ivory and rubber.
I am grateful to have recently read Adam Hochschild's brilliant popular history of the Congo, King Leopold's Ghost for some of the backstory on this truth. Conrad lived during a time when social activists in England and missionaries from the US were organizing a global effort to expose the colonial crimes of The Congo Republic, Leopold's personal colonial fiefdom occupying a land area 18 times larger than Belgium. Leopold cynically sold the public on his scheme to civilize the savages and free them from Islamic slavers when, in fact, he had every intention of enslaving the people himself to pillage the land for all of its exportable resources. In a neighborhood of colonial cruelty by European powers, little Belgium managed to outdo all others in its naked brutality.
Conrad's Heart of Darkness played a part in the expose of Leopold. The existential elements of civilized men descending into savagery were a key theme of the novella. But most of the "deeper" interpretations are exercises in pretension. This is just a phenomenal story -- read it for what it is.
"The Secret Sharer" is a separate short story added to this edition to give it heft. It takes place in the Gulf of Thailand and displays Conrad's mastery of the sea story. Like "Heart of Darkness", "The Secret Sharer" is based on Conrad's own experience as a master of a ship. I never liked this story. The entire premise, that a newly commissioned shipmaster would take on a fugitive as a secret stowaway because he is enthralled by how much the stranger looked like himself is just too weird and unrealistic for me. But as a sea story, it is very well written.
Anyway, this is a five-star book... "Heart of Darkness" has an other-worldly quality to it, but is, at the end of the day, one man's eye-witness to one of the world's notoriously brutal colonial regimes... and "The Secret Sharer" is a brilliant but odd sea story.
Don't read too much into these, please. Conrad wanted to be known as a story-teller, not as a pretentious maker of deep things that never were.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Joseph Conrad is among my favorite novelists, and Heart of Darkness is by far, my favorite novel... although by definition it is a novella, not a novel, and novellas are my favorite fiction construct. I have read this five or six times and will probably read it five or six more times should I live long enough. I also love the two most famous film "interpretations" of this work, Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, despite neither of them even trying to be a movie adaptation of the novella. They moved the setting to Vietnam and South America respectively. But Coppola stayed true to much of the novel and many scenes in his classic Vietnam War movie do, indeed, come straight from Conrad's story.
Throughout the years, I have been baffled by how few people appreciate Heart of Darkness. There are way too many three or less stars reviews even on Goodreads. Then it dawned on me why: most people were introduced to this novella in an English Lit class--particularly this edition, Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer with one of those English Lit dogmatic deep interpretation Introductions by Literary Scholar and College Professor Franklin Walker. It is practically required reading in most Lit classes. And most English Lit professors have NO idea what the book is about and spend an inordinate time trying to interpret words, symbols, images, yadda yadda, until Heart of Darkness is little more than an existential deep dive into the shallow nothingness of academic shibboleths. SIGH... People, I have a revelation: Heart of Darkness is a story about the Belgium Congo based on Conrad's personal experiences as a river boat pilot on the Congo River. That's all.
Many of the characters are based on real people he met there. Yes, there are real world models for Kurtz. All the mumbo-jumbo about man's inner savage and Kurtz's descent into madness are based on otherwise civilized people Conrad saw commit the most bestial atrocities when placed in remote locations in the bush where they had the authority to play God over the local population but with no accountability for their actions... or worse, encouraged to the most rapacious behavioral extremes by King Leopold II's ravenous quest for ivory and rubber.
I am grateful to have recently read Adam Hochschild's brilliant popular history of the Congo, King Leopold's Ghost for some of the backstory on this truth. Conrad lived during a time when social activists in England and missionaries from the US were organizing a global effort to expose the colonial crimes of The Congo Republic, Leopold's personal colonial fiefdom occupying a land area 18 times larger than Belgium. Leopold cynically sold the public on his scheme to civilize the savages and free them from Islamic slavers when, in fact, he had every intention of enslaving the people himself to pillage the land for all of its exportable resources. In a neighborhood of colonial cruelty by European powers, little Belgium managed to outdo all others in its naked brutality.
Conrad's Heart of Darkness played a part in the expose of Leopold. The existential elements of civilized men descending into savagery were a key theme of the novella. But most of the "deeper" interpretations are exercises in pretension. This is just a phenomenal story -- read it for what it is.
"The Secret Sharer" is a separate short story added to this edition to give it heft. It takes place in the Gulf of Thailand and displays Conrad's mastery of the sea story. Like "Heart of Darkness", "The Secret Sharer" is based on Conrad's own experience as a master of a ship. I never liked this story. The entire premise, that a newly commissioned shipmaster would take on a fugitive as a secret stowaway because he is enthralled by how much the stranger looked like himself is just too weird and unrealistic for me. But as a sea story, it is very well written.
Anyway, this is a five-star book... "Heart of Darkness" has an other-worldly quality to it, but is, at the end of the day, one man's eye-witness to one of the world's notoriously brutal colonial regimes... and "The Secret Sharer" is a brilliant but odd sea story.
Don't read too much into these, please. Conrad wanted to be known as a story-teller, not as a pretentious maker of deep things that never were.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
April 29, 2014
I LOVE JOSEPH CONRAD. I don't even know... there's just something about his writing that makes my brain happy.
I generally hate seafaring stories, but his are so much more than that. There's so much depth to his writing, and so much insight into the human psyche. Also, I have yet to read an author who does a more convincing oral-narration voice.
Also also... the man didn't even learn English until he was an adult. How he then managed to write in English with more finesse than 99% of English-speaking writers have managed to do before or since STAGGERS me. RESPECT, DUDE. Respect. *bows to Conrad's genius*
I generally hate seafaring stories, but his are so much more than that. There's so much depth to his writing, and so much insight into the human psyche. Also, I have yet to read an author who does a more convincing oral-narration voice.
Also also... the man didn't even learn English until he was an adult. How he then managed to write in English with more finesse than 99% of English-speaking writers have managed to do before or since STAGGERS me. RESPECT, DUDE. Respect. *bows to Conrad's genius*
July 25, 2022
10/10
April 10, 2022
“Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of inextinguishable regrets.”
I usually don’t include quotes in my reviews, but the last ten to fifteen pages of Heart of Darkness is one of the best payoffs in literature. Conrad does a masterful job building toward the end through setting and tone, not going overboard with his description of the environment; he says just enough to pull the reader into this oppressive wilderness, and to instill them with that sense of foreboding, and ultimate doom.
This was another book that I dodged being assigned in high school, and has sat on my shelf for many years. Reading King Leopold’s Ghost is actually what inspired me to finally pick this up. Anyone interested in learning the true atrocities committed in the Congo without the uncomfortable early twentieth century quasi-racist lens that sometimes becomes apparent in Conrad’s narrative, I would refer them to that grim historical account.
I usually don’t include quotes in my reviews, but the last ten to fifteen pages of Heart of Darkness is one of the best payoffs in literature. Conrad does a masterful job building toward the end through setting and tone, not going overboard with his description of the environment; he says just enough to pull the reader into this oppressive wilderness, and to instill them with that sense of foreboding, and ultimate doom.
This was another book that I dodged being assigned in high school, and has sat on my shelf for many years. Reading King Leopold’s Ghost is actually what inspired me to finally pick this up. Anyone interested in learning the true atrocities committed in the Congo without the uncomfortable early twentieth century quasi-racist lens that sometimes becomes apparent in Conrad’s narrative, I would refer them to that grim historical account.
November 11, 2023
Conrad n'est pas le plus connus des écrivains Anglais chez les Francais. Ca vaudrait bien la peine pour un francophone qui a des amis Anglophones de lire "A Cœur des ténèbres" afin de bien s'armer pour les conversations littéraires à avenir. Les professeurs faisait lire Conrad durant mes années de jeunesse. J'ai du lire "À Cœur des ténèbres" pour un cours à l'école secondaire et une deuxième fois pour un cours au deuxième cycle. A l'époque c'était un très grands classiques de notre littérature.
Le roman qui est bien court traine en longueur. Le capitaine d'un cargo qui appartiennent a un une compagnie londonienne de commerce monte le fleuve Congo. Il est chargé d'enquêter sur le chef bureau loin dans l'intérieur du Congo un nommé Kurtz dont les chiffres de ventes battent tous les records. Ce qui inquiète la direction de la compagnie, ce sont les bruits qui commence à circuler voulant que les méthodes de Kurtz sont peu orthodoxes.
Le capitaine arrive. Il fait des macabres découvertes et trouve des indices d'atrocités. Le mystérieux Kurtz, atteint mortellement d'une maladie tropicale, est sur son lit de mort. Son dernier mot lâché, c'est "Horreur!"
Quand le capitaine reviennent en Angleterre il est trop discret pour raconteur la vérité à la fiancée du défunt Kurtz.
Depuis son lancement en 1899, on considère ce roman comme étant une critique magistrale du colonialisme.
On trouve aussi dans ce volume, la petite nouvelle "Le compagnon secret". Le lien avec "A Cœur des ténèbres" n'est pas évident. Les événements du "Compagnon secret" se passent dans un contexte colonial. Le protagoniste est un jeune capitaine qui fait son premier voyage sur le "Cutty Sark" un navire commercial britannique. L'accueil du l'équipage pour le jeune capitaine est très froid. Dans son isolation, l'héros va commettre un crime contre sa profession.
Dans le golfe du Siam, on découvre un nageur que l'on fait monter sur l'embarcation. Le capitaine constate que le nageur est son doppelgänger. Le nageur avoue qu'il avait tué un homme sur son navire. Le devoir professionnelle du jeune capitaine est remettre le fugitif aux main des autorités . Cependant entouré d'un équipage ou il n'a pas d'amis le capitaine choisit d'aider l'assassin dans sa fuite.
Dans son isolement, loin de ses proches, Kurtz choisit le mal dans "À Cœur des ténèbres". Dans "Le compagnon", par contre, le jeune capitaine aux yeux de Conrad choisit le bien.
Le roman qui est bien court traine en longueur. Le capitaine d'un cargo qui appartiennent a un une compagnie londonienne de commerce monte le fleuve Congo. Il est chargé d'enquêter sur le chef bureau loin dans l'intérieur du Congo un nommé Kurtz dont les chiffres de ventes battent tous les records. Ce qui inquiète la direction de la compagnie, ce sont les bruits qui commence à circuler voulant que les méthodes de Kurtz sont peu orthodoxes.
Le capitaine arrive. Il fait des macabres découvertes et trouve des indices d'atrocités. Le mystérieux Kurtz, atteint mortellement d'une maladie tropicale, est sur son lit de mort. Son dernier mot lâché, c'est "Horreur!"
Quand le capitaine reviennent en Angleterre il est trop discret pour raconteur la vérité à la fiancée du défunt Kurtz.
Depuis son lancement en 1899, on considère ce roman comme étant une critique magistrale du colonialisme.
On trouve aussi dans ce volume, la petite nouvelle "Le compagnon secret". Le lien avec "A Cœur des ténèbres" n'est pas évident. Les événements du "Compagnon secret" se passent dans un contexte colonial. Le protagoniste est un jeune capitaine qui fait son premier voyage sur le "Cutty Sark" un navire commercial britannique. L'accueil du l'équipage pour le jeune capitaine est très froid. Dans son isolation, l'héros va commettre un crime contre sa profession.
Dans le golfe du Siam, on découvre un nageur que l'on fait monter sur l'embarcation. Le capitaine constate que le nageur est son doppelgänger. Le nageur avoue qu'il avait tué un homme sur son navire. Le devoir professionnelle du jeune capitaine est remettre le fugitif aux main des autorités . Cependant entouré d'un équipage ou il n'a pas d'amis le capitaine choisit d'aider l'assassin dans sa fuite.
Dans son isolement, loin de ses proches, Kurtz choisit le mal dans "À Cœur des ténèbres". Dans "Le compagnon", par contre, le jeune capitaine aux yeux de Conrad choisit le bien.
January 9, 2012
I recently read the "Heart of Darkness" portion of the book for my High School AP English class. Overall, I would have to agree with the majority of other reviewers here in saying that this book WAS BORING! Unlike many of my peers, I DO read for pleasure and know a good book when I read one. I'm not lying when I say that I thought that the writing was actually very good. However, the overall storyline was mediocre at best. Yeah, sure, metaphors and a deeper meaning, and all that, blah blah blah boring. I don't much care for all that stuff. If it's not an interesting story I don't much see the point in taking the time to read it. I think Marlow can sum up the storyline of the book when he says "I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap" (p. 70) and I think Kurtz sums up how I felt about the book in general when he says "The horror! The horror!" (p.154). I really did not enjoy the book and it was an overall horrid waste of three and a half hours of my life. (Plus time to write a review on this site for my English class)
March 8, 2019
I went into the book knowing it’s a “tough” read. Regardless, I was really hoping for a book that explored the darkness of humanity and the descent into madness, however I feel like I really missed something major in this book. I got nothing out of it. He spends most of the story talking about the journey to see Kurtz and how mythical this man is, and when he gets to see him, the interactions seem rare and distant to the point where I have no clue what their interactions were or why he was dying. Then after Kurtz dies, the narrator writes speaks about Kurtz both as if he’s not worth the time of day and like he’s left a permanent impression that will be on his mind every day. When did this happen??
I’ve rarely felt so neutral about a book before. It’s a shame because his actual descriptions of the jungle and varied vocabulary could work so well.
I’ve rarely felt so neutral about a book before. It’s a shame because his actual descriptions of the jungle and varied vocabulary could work so well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2016
This book didn't do anything for me. I clearly missed something, but I don't care enough to find out what.
July 21, 2016
Heart Of Darkness didn’t live up to the hype for me. I got far more out of a study of the themes, background, and historical significance than I did out of an enjoyment on the first read. There were quite a few outstanding lines, but the narrative is maudlin and slow. I’m sure it was very progressive for its time in provocative content and style, especially for tying in psychological observation and analysis, and I’m sure that’s why even its form, which now has been repeated and surpassed, is so appreciated by many to this day. It is one of those books which I believe now belongs, stylistically at least, to early 20th century literature, although the message is still going strong.
In it, Conrad called out European colonialism, narcissism, and conventional morality for what it was: an arrogant illusion of sanity and progress. Heart Of Darkness was a mordant accusation against western modernism which pretended to be able to tame what is wild in humanity and what is unknown in the universe. It shows how flimsy is our pretense of appearing to be in control and in ‘the know’. We aren’t. We will always be far from understanding the universe if only by virtue of the fact that we are ‘in’ it, and cannot distance ourselves far enough from it and ourselves to achieve complete comprehension of our situation. We are thralls to mystery and the eternal unknown within which we lie buried, and which will forever expand itself through the cosmic wormhole running straight through the center of our being.
Conrad uses this novella as a set-up for exploring the dark and cognitively unassimilated parts of our psyche and existence, and this is what he calls the “Fascination Of the Abomination.”
“The utter savagery had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There’s no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination…”
What we can’t understand, what we can’t fathom, fascinates us, draws us; and yet it is deep within us the inescapable and uncharted territories of the human soul and unconscious mind. The civilized person recoils at the thought of the natural world as an untamed force, but Conrad takes us far inland, into the jungle, where large-framed pictures can’t hide the holes, and aerosol disinfectants can’t mask the rank, bacterial growth of the inhumane, intractable, and inscrutable features of Nature.
What can save one from despair in the face of this abominable incomprehension? Conrad mocks the pseudo-answers of habits and custom. “Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this [lost]. What saves us is efficiency—the devotion to efficiency.” This idea of custom as the salve to our angst is echoed later in the play by Beckett, Waiting For Godot, who wrote that “habit is a great deadener” which stifles thoughts and questions about life’s meaning which cause us distress. The great unknowns of 1) foreign minds and powers in the universe that threaten to cause one harm, and 2) the post-modern search for the purpose and meaning of life, may appear like two different things, but each one causes a certain amount of anxiety, and both are responded to by developing methods and customs that help us feel like we belong and have a handle on things. An interesting moment in the narrative comes when Marlow comes across a book in a shelter in the dark, usurping jungle which was written on the banal subject of nautical methods; and finds that the “singleness of intention” and “honest concern for the right way of going to work” makes him “forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real.”
The whole point of this story is for the sailor in Conrad to pistol-whip his safe, landlubber-readers with the question: how thin is the so-called ‘veneer of civilization’? He exposes culture as a thin coating which peels in the heat of privation and conflict, and quickly flakes away leaving only the real, bitter, and irreducible ‘hungers’ of the carnal instincts. “No [moral] fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze…It’s really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one’s soul—than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true.” His infrared scope identifies the vital organs for the kill when he refers to modern man as “stepping delicately between the butcher [food] and the policeman [safety].” Shot through the heart, and Conrad’s to blame!!
There certainly appears to be some Victorian misogyny and probably some racism infecting the fin de siècle psychical baggage Conrad carries with him, but I do agree with Joyce Carol Oates who wrote in the introduction that he was much more advanced than others in is era, and did much to bring to consciousness the shortcomings of European imperialism and bias. Specifically he challenged the moral-spiritual squalor of Victorian decorum and opulence, and the tendency of Europeans to believe that they were morally superior to the rest of the less developed parts of the world by right of privileged birth and by dubious evidence of material success.
Conrad was intrigued with the contrast between the bewitchment of the untamed wild (the “fascination of abomination,” and the “horror” of Mr. Kurtz), and the cavalier complaisance of domesticated and dissociated society (European greed, and the melodrama of Mr. Kurtz’s fiancée). As an author he may have been experimenting with the idea of how to get back to the raw primordial forces of nature and the unconscious without sacrificing the discipline and stability of reason and community. The Wild is not as safe as it is powerful. “I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity [the dark jungle] looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace… Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us?” And in the end, Marlow returns to his society, to his people and his customs and his habits. As if nothing ever happened. But the spectacle of his conscious duplicity is made very explicit in his final conversation with Kurtz’ fiancée-widow which caricatures the European attitude so wonderfully and magnifies Conrad’s disgust for upper-class theatrics and hypocrisy. A year after Kurtz’s death his engaged is still melodramatically woeful about her loss. She practically swoons all over the place in front of Marlow boasting of Kurtz’s fine modern ideals and righteous superiority, and begs of Marlow to corroborate her convictions about her husband’s worth. Marlow watches her histrionics and finally decides to play to them. Instead of revealing to her that he saw the transmogrification of Kurtz and had witnessed his final words in which he acknowledged the deep and writhing darkness that is life—“Horror! Horror!”—he instead dumbs down the climactic ending of Kurtz and tells instead that he died whispering her name to the very end. Isn’t that nice. But he’s shocked and obviously disappointed that the ceiling doesn’t cave in on him, or more importantly, on anyone else for lying the civilized lie of hypocrisy and egocentrism. “The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.”
Did Conrad desire a peeling away of civilization’s mask, and a return to the freedom, mystery, and power of the wild in some sense? Yes and no. I think he saw in it, as did many modern psychologists and philosophers, a raw, unharnessed force that could potentially help to enhance creativity and vigor; or it could be very destructive. Mr. Kurtz went feral, to his own demise and to the demise of others around him, but he successfully escaped the cheap substitute of being a decent citizen which couldn’t quite satisfy the primal instinct for adventure, mystery, and power. Then again, he killed and died. So, there’s that. Tipping the scale either way brings extreme ennui, angst of meaninglessness, suffering, or death.
And for anyone who doesn’t know, anything Conrad can do, London can do better, and with less words. Jack London wrote The Call Of the Wild and The Sea Wolf on this same topic, and his authorial execution of the ‘return to the wild’ theme, which was his specialty, is much more muscular and sportive in nearly all of his works. Conrad is much more wordy and formal in his narrative, while London lets loose with a cunning, creativity, and pompous confidence that makes his words cut to the quick and soar above careful writers like Conrad.
Search your feelings Luke. You know it’s true. Just my humble opinion. But I’m right.
Like this review? Clicking ‘like’ lets me know someone’s reading! For more reviews, visit my blog at www.bookburningservice.blogspot.com and start following!
In it, Conrad called out European colonialism, narcissism, and conventional morality for what it was: an arrogant illusion of sanity and progress. Heart Of Darkness was a mordant accusation against western modernism which pretended to be able to tame what is wild in humanity and what is unknown in the universe. It shows how flimsy is our pretense of appearing to be in control and in ‘the know’. We aren’t. We will always be far from understanding the universe if only by virtue of the fact that we are ‘in’ it, and cannot distance ourselves far enough from it and ourselves to achieve complete comprehension of our situation. We are thralls to mystery and the eternal unknown within which we lie buried, and which will forever expand itself through the cosmic wormhole running straight through the center of our being.
Conrad uses this novella as a set-up for exploring the dark and cognitively unassimilated parts of our psyche and existence, and this is what he calls the “Fascination Of the Abomination.”
“The utter savagery had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There’s no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination…”
What we can’t understand, what we can’t fathom, fascinates us, draws us; and yet it is deep within us the inescapable and uncharted territories of the human soul and unconscious mind. The civilized person recoils at the thought of the natural world as an untamed force, but Conrad takes us far inland, into the jungle, where large-framed pictures can’t hide the holes, and aerosol disinfectants can’t mask the rank, bacterial growth of the inhumane, intractable, and inscrutable features of Nature.
What can save one from despair in the face of this abominable incomprehension? Conrad mocks the pseudo-answers of habits and custom. “Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this [lost]. What saves us is efficiency—the devotion to efficiency.” This idea of custom as the salve to our angst is echoed later in the play by Beckett, Waiting For Godot, who wrote that “habit is a great deadener” which stifles thoughts and questions about life’s meaning which cause us distress. The great unknowns of 1) foreign minds and powers in the universe that threaten to cause one harm, and 2) the post-modern search for the purpose and meaning of life, may appear like two different things, but each one causes a certain amount of anxiety, and both are responded to by developing methods and customs that help us feel like we belong and have a handle on things. An interesting moment in the narrative comes when Marlow comes across a book in a shelter in the dark, usurping jungle which was written on the banal subject of nautical methods; and finds that the “singleness of intention” and “honest concern for the right way of going to work” makes him “forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real.”
The whole point of this story is for the sailor in Conrad to pistol-whip his safe, landlubber-readers with the question: how thin is the so-called ‘veneer of civilization’? He exposes culture as a thin coating which peels in the heat of privation and conflict, and quickly flakes away leaving only the real, bitter, and irreducible ‘hungers’ of the carnal instincts. “No [moral] fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze…It’s really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one’s soul—than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true.” His infrared scope identifies the vital organs for the kill when he refers to modern man as “stepping delicately between the butcher [food] and the policeman [safety].” Shot through the heart, and Conrad’s to blame!!
There certainly appears to be some Victorian misogyny and probably some racism infecting the fin de siècle psychical baggage Conrad carries with him, but I do agree with Joyce Carol Oates who wrote in the introduction that he was much more advanced than others in is era, and did much to bring to consciousness the shortcomings of European imperialism and bias. Specifically he challenged the moral-spiritual squalor of Victorian decorum and opulence, and the tendency of Europeans to believe that they were morally superior to the rest of the less developed parts of the world by right of privileged birth and by dubious evidence of material success.
Conrad was intrigued with the contrast between the bewitchment of the untamed wild (the “fascination of abomination,” and the “horror” of Mr. Kurtz), and the cavalier complaisance of domesticated and dissociated society (European greed, and the melodrama of Mr. Kurtz’s fiancée). As an author he may have been experimenting with the idea of how to get back to the raw primordial forces of nature and the unconscious without sacrificing the discipline and stability of reason and community. The Wild is not as safe as it is powerful. “I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity [the dark jungle] looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace… Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us?” And in the end, Marlow returns to his society, to his people and his customs and his habits. As if nothing ever happened. But the spectacle of his conscious duplicity is made very explicit in his final conversation with Kurtz’ fiancée-widow which caricatures the European attitude so wonderfully and magnifies Conrad’s disgust for upper-class theatrics and hypocrisy. A year after Kurtz’s death his engaged is still melodramatically woeful about her loss. She practically swoons all over the place in front of Marlow boasting of Kurtz’s fine modern ideals and righteous superiority, and begs of Marlow to corroborate her convictions about her husband’s worth. Marlow watches her histrionics and finally decides to play to them. Instead of revealing to her that he saw the transmogrification of Kurtz and had witnessed his final words in which he acknowledged the deep and writhing darkness that is life—“Horror! Horror!”—he instead dumbs down the climactic ending of Kurtz and tells instead that he died whispering her name to the very end. Isn’t that nice. But he’s shocked and obviously disappointed that the ceiling doesn’t cave in on him, or more importantly, on anyone else for lying the civilized lie of hypocrisy and egocentrism. “The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.”
Did Conrad desire a peeling away of civilization’s mask, and a return to the freedom, mystery, and power of the wild in some sense? Yes and no. I think he saw in it, as did many modern psychologists and philosophers, a raw, unharnessed force that could potentially help to enhance creativity and vigor; or it could be very destructive. Mr. Kurtz went feral, to his own demise and to the demise of others around him, but he successfully escaped the cheap substitute of being a decent citizen which couldn’t quite satisfy the primal instinct for adventure, mystery, and power. Then again, he killed and died. So, there’s that. Tipping the scale either way brings extreme ennui, angst of meaninglessness, suffering, or death.
And for anyone who doesn’t know, anything Conrad can do, London can do better, and with less words. Jack London wrote The Call Of the Wild and The Sea Wolf on this same topic, and his authorial execution of the ‘return to the wild’ theme, which was his specialty, is much more muscular and sportive in nearly all of his works. Conrad is much more wordy and formal in his narrative, while London lets loose with a cunning, creativity, and pompous confidence that makes his words cut to the quick and soar above careful writers like Conrad.
Search your feelings Luke. You know it’s true. Just my humble opinion. But I’m right.
Like this review? Clicking ‘like’ lets me know someone’s reading! For more reviews, visit my blog at www.bookburningservice.blogspot.com and start following!
April 9, 2022
The spine of the centuries
May 8, 2009
When I entered the U. of Chicago, there were graffiti around campus: "'Mr. Kurtz, he dead!' Bird lives!" Now, how hip was that! So, when I found out that the first part of it was from Heart of Darkness, of course I had to read that. I admired Conrad for being a non-native speaker writing in English and I'm still a sucker for the Victorian gentleman thing. I know, totally sick for a Black man. So shoot me! . . . Did/do I see the white supremist viewpoint. Sure. That was out there. The book puts you inside the head of a character and into a time and place that allows you to understand the worldview, one that has thoroughly conditioned our history and still is around. Besides that, it's a great yarn.
November 19, 2020
We were assigned Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Lord Jim' in our senior AP literature class in high school. I much preferred the former even though I knew only generalities about the European exploitation of Africa and virtually nothing about the example of the Belgian Congo--an instance of exploitation without sanctimonious justifications in terms of "civilizing missions" and the like. We did have The Secret Sharer assigned but I frankly cannot recall reading it.
In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola took the theme of the novella and applied it to the attempted American take-over of Southeast Asia in his film, 'Apocalypse Now'. He did a good job of it. Read the novella, read something about Leopold's Congo and our Vietnam War, then see the movie if you haven't already.
In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola took the theme of the novella and applied it to the attempted American take-over of Southeast Asia in his film, 'Apocalypse Now'. He did a good job of it. Read the novella, read something about Leopold's Congo and our Vietnam War, then see the movie if you haven't already.
August 21, 2007
I haven't read the Secret Sharer portion yet but for the Heart of Darkness part...plodding. Very profound, very deep, but maybe I watched too much tv while still in my malleable childhood and have too short of an attention span; man, this was hard to finish. I was more moved by the impression that J. Conrad was trying so hard to describe an indescribable sense of something, than the actual something he was describing. I think many other books present the same subject while also being entertaining - does that make me uncivilized? So many people loved this book. Why don't I?
March 17, 2020
Ok so this is the hardest book to finish, honestly.
It’s just a few pages but I feel like there’s so much information in here, and the author definetely jumps from the narration to a description of the surroundings or an additional mention regarding the characters.
It’s confusing, at some point I couldn’t even remember what I was reading a paragraph before.
I do appreciate the idea of the whole story, its emphasis on slavery and subtle intrespection on life and its meaning.
I think the whole point of this continuous mention of darkness could be only metaphisically explained.
It’s just a few pages but I feel like there’s so much information in here, and the author definetely jumps from the narration to a description of the surroundings or an additional mention regarding the characters.
It’s confusing, at some point I couldn’t even remember what I was reading a paragraph before.
I do appreciate the idea of the whole story, its emphasis on slavery and subtle intrespection on life and its meaning.
I think the whole point of this continuous mention of darkness could be only metaphisically explained.
August 3, 2007
Perhaps this is unfair because I only made it through "The Secret Sharer" before plopping the book down with a satisfied "well that was every bit as pretentious as I thought it would be."
Maybe "Heart of Darkness" is the brilliant piece everyone says it is, all I know is that after 50 pages of Conrad's tediously detailed prose I needed a palate cleanser and had to reread part of Harry Potter #7 to get it.
Maybe "Heart of Darkness" is the brilliant piece everyone says it is, all I know is that after 50 pages of Conrad's tediously detailed prose I needed a palate cleanser and had to reread part of Harry Potter #7 to get it.
August 16, 2016
Going into this, I had a feeling it was going to be one of those experiences where I was going to think it was a pretty decent story but that afterwards someone with an advanced degree in literature would regale me with examples of all the deep symbolism and allegorical constructs that were embedded in the text, explaining to me how the book could be a much richer text if I only knew how to read it properly, forcing me to either a) read the book over again to see if I could actually spot some of this stuff or b) stick with books involving spaceships or elves, preferably both at the same time. But I figured, hey, I've read Giant Russian Novels(tm), and those are like twenty times the size of this book. How opaque could it be to me?
Turns out even a potential-English-major-who-wound-up-with-an-advanced-degree-in-science like myself could pretty much get the gist of it. The thing with Conrad in general, and "Heart of Darkness" specifically, is that there is so much thematic weight bearing down on you like the proverbial jungle that after a hundred years of analysis people are capable of reading into it pretty much anything they want to. Is a metaphorical journey in the very center for the human capacity for evil, or was Conrad simply predicting what going to a boy band concert would be like for most of us? I'm sure doctorates have been achieved with either thesis.
I've personally found that with all these "important" books, no matter the era or country of origin or even the intent, its best to approach them at first as how they were meant to be experienced: as books, because all the hullabaloo about symbolism isn't going to help you if the plot is a bit of a snoozer. With any book that people have been poring over for decades, chances are you aren't going to get all the nuances that the author built into it, it takes a bit of research and context to unpack what exactly the author is trying to say beyond conveying the plot. Heck, the fact that you're even reading it will cause your high school English teacher to shed a single tear of unbridled happiness.
With all that said, "Heart of Darkness" is clearly about a boat rid-
Ahem. If anyone has ever experienced "Heart of Darkness" outside of a high school or college reading assignment (and admit it, if you ever chose it from a list its because it was short) its probably through its cinematic cousin "Apocalypse Now", featuring Martin Sheen method acting a heart attack in the worst way and Marlon Brando heaping all the scenery on a plate so he can go for seconds and thirds. A lot of people who have seen the movie have gone to the book expecting it to be just like that. Too soon they find its not, since among other reasons it takes place in "Darkest" Africa and not in Vietnam, there's very little action and Kurtz has an even smaller role in the story, though its still pretty memorable. Broken down to its barest elements, the story basically is a tale of a guy who is fascinated by the stories he hears about the best darn ivory merchant in Africa, goes deep inside the jungle to meet him and eventually finds that circumstances have thrown everyone a bit off their nut. Then he goes back home.
So where's the draw? Its certainly not the world's most complicated plot and Conrad manages to nail it in about a hundred pages. Its also unfortunately a product of its time in parts, and in order to get through it you have to at least acknowledge that people weren't very enlightened back then and anyone remotely of African descent are probably not going to be thrilled with multiple depictions of the locals as basically moaning savages, and the interior detailed as a place where civilization checks its bags at the door and doesn't bother going any further (ignoring the actual civilizations that existed at that time). It safe to say that Conrad might go a bit overboard in making his point since while he gets the feel of Europeans essentially barging in and having their way with the place, he also shows an Africa that really isn't anything even anyone who was there at the time might recognize (even if a bunch of the readers probably imagined it was like this all the time).
So what does he get right, then, once you overlook the casual institutional racism (some of it you can try to explain as the prejudices of the narrator and some you're just not going to defend)? The feel, basically. With only a hundred pages to tell the story and get out, Conrad doesn't waste any time, and from the start has the narrator Marlow build an atmosphere of complete and utter claustrophobia, with a bunch of Europeans scrambling around at the edge of the opaque interior without the slightest clue what's going on, all the while glancing uneasily at the thick jungle that looms ahead of them. They're stuck in a place they don't understand at all and while they're certainly enjoying the sweet, sweet profit they're getting out of it, you can't quite shake the feel of oppressive dread that hangs over everything (to me it had the same feel as the Conan story "Beyond the Black River", where the jungle was constantly two seconds away from erupting and engulfing everything) as men come and go in their way stations, barely able to communicate from one place to another and relying on rumors and hearsay to pass as knowledge.
In this we watch as the infamous Kurtz grows in Marlow's eyes from random mention to eventual legend and where Conrad's skill lies is how he builds him up without ever showing him until near the very end, how different people keep describing him in glowing terms even when its clear that things on the interior are not going so well and its quite possible everyone has gone crazy. The whole journey down the river feels like both a gradual loosening and tightening, the bonds of civilization fraying while something else begins to constrict. By the time we find Kurtz its pretty much too late for anyone involved and all Marlow can do is pick up the pieces and try to explain it.
Once it gets going its a remarkably intense work and short enough that rereading it does actually bring out nuances you didn't notice the first time (although I do tend to read fast, so maybe I should just slow down) especially once Marlow reaches Kurtz's station and the gap between what he thinks of Kurtz and what's happening on the ground is getting further and further apart (though granted there are points where you keep expecting Marlow to start doodling his name and Kurtz's in hearts in the margins of his notebook). Those final scenes in the jungle are almost too short to have a real impact but reading them again the next day its clear that the feel of the jungle doesn't leave the book, Marlow simply carries it away with him. For something so straightforward there's an eerie power to it as Conrad creates a jungle based on the fears of a continent, mirroring an erosion of civilization that he doesn't seem to see as limited to the jungle. It may not resemble any jungle that ever existed in real life (maybe a good thing, considering how potentially offensive it is) but I will admit there is something weirdly primal about it, although someone better versed in Jungian archetypes may be better qualified to expound on that aspect. For everyone else, imagine those Burne Hogarth spiky "Tarzan" junglescapes, but even more foreboding, without the hope that friendly animals are going to come save you.
My Signet Classic copy also has Conrad's short story "The Secret Sharer", one of his better regarded tales. It probably should be titled "I Want to Be My Own Shadow" as on the surface its even more straightforward than "Heart of Darkness" was. A young sea captain on his first command pulls a guy on board that has escaped from a different ship, apparently for killing someone else, and for reasons of his own decides to hide the guy from everyone else on the ship, going to great lengths to make sure he's not found. At first glance this seems like a more po-faced version of all those William Hope Hodgson sea stories I read a few months back but Conrad's constant references to how similar the two look make you realize there's more metaphorically going on under the surface that he'd like you to know about. Unfortunately for him, the story lacks the atmosphere of its companion tale and while I'm sure there's someone out there who can argue that its really the better story, there's not much to make you want to go back to reading it, unlike "Heart of Darkness". However, it has a happier ending so if that's your criteria then by all means.
Turns out even a potential-English-major-who-wound-up-with-an-advanced-degree-in-science like myself could pretty much get the gist of it. The thing with Conrad in general, and "Heart of Darkness" specifically, is that there is so much thematic weight bearing down on you like the proverbial jungle that after a hundred years of analysis people are capable of reading into it pretty much anything they want to. Is a metaphorical journey in the very center for the human capacity for evil, or was Conrad simply predicting what going to a boy band concert would be like for most of us? I'm sure doctorates have been achieved with either thesis.
I've personally found that with all these "important" books, no matter the era or country of origin or even the intent, its best to approach them at first as how they were meant to be experienced: as books, because all the hullabaloo about symbolism isn't going to help you if the plot is a bit of a snoozer. With any book that people have been poring over for decades, chances are you aren't going to get all the nuances that the author built into it, it takes a bit of research and context to unpack what exactly the author is trying to say beyond conveying the plot. Heck, the fact that you're even reading it will cause your high school English teacher to shed a single tear of unbridled happiness.
With all that said, "Heart of Darkness" is clearly about a boat rid-
Ahem. If anyone has ever experienced "Heart of Darkness" outside of a high school or college reading assignment (and admit it, if you ever chose it from a list its because it was short) its probably through its cinematic cousin "Apocalypse Now", featuring Martin Sheen method acting a heart attack in the worst way and Marlon Brando heaping all the scenery on a plate so he can go for seconds and thirds. A lot of people who have seen the movie have gone to the book expecting it to be just like that. Too soon they find its not, since among other reasons it takes place in "Darkest" Africa and not in Vietnam, there's very little action and Kurtz has an even smaller role in the story, though its still pretty memorable. Broken down to its barest elements, the story basically is a tale of a guy who is fascinated by the stories he hears about the best darn ivory merchant in Africa, goes deep inside the jungle to meet him and eventually finds that circumstances have thrown everyone a bit off their nut. Then he goes back home.
So where's the draw? Its certainly not the world's most complicated plot and Conrad manages to nail it in about a hundred pages. Its also unfortunately a product of its time in parts, and in order to get through it you have to at least acknowledge that people weren't very enlightened back then and anyone remotely of African descent are probably not going to be thrilled with multiple depictions of the locals as basically moaning savages, and the interior detailed as a place where civilization checks its bags at the door and doesn't bother going any further (ignoring the actual civilizations that existed at that time). It safe to say that Conrad might go a bit overboard in making his point since while he gets the feel of Europeans essentially barging in and having their way with the place, he also shows an Africa that really isn't anything even anyone who was there at the time might recognize (even if a bunch of the readers probably imagined it was like this all the time).
So what does he get right, then, once you overlook the casual institutional racism (some of it you can try to explain as the prejudices of the narrator and some you're just not going to defend)? The feel, basically. With only a hundred pages to tell the story and get out, Conrad doesn't waste any time, and from the start has the narrator Marlow build an atmosphere of complete and utter claustrophobia, with a bunch of Europeans scrambling around at the edge of the opaque interior without the slightest clue what's going on, all the while glancing uneasily at the thick jungle that looms ahead of them. They're stuck in a place they don't understand at all and while they're certainly enjoying the sweet, sweet profit they're getting out of it, you can't quite shake the feel of oppressive dread that hangs over everything (to me it had the same feel as the Conan story "Beyond the Black River", where the jungle was constantly two seconds away from erupting and engulfing everything) as men come and go in their way stations, barely able to communicate from one place to another and relying on rumors and hearsay to pass as knowledge.
In this we watch as the infamous Kurtz grows in Marlow's eyes from random mention to eventual legend and where Conrad's skill lies is how he builds him up without ever showing him until near the very end, how different people keep describing him in glowing terms even when its clear that things on the interior are not going so well and its quite possible everyone has gone crazy. The whole journey down the river feels like both a gradual loosening and tightening, the bonds of civilization fraying while something else begins to constrict. By the time we find Kurtz its pretty much too late for anyone involved and all Marlow can do is pick up the pieces and try to explain it.
Once it gets going its a remarkably intense work and short enough that rereading it does actually bring out nuances you didn't notice the first time (although I do tend to read fast, so maybe I should just slow down) especially once Marlow reaches Kurtz's station and the gap between what he thinks of Kurtz and what's happening on the ground is getting further and further apart (though granted there are points where you keep expecting Marlow to start doodling his name and Kurtz's in hearts in the margins of his notebook). Those final scenes in the jungle are almost too short to have a real impact but reading them again the next day its clear that the feel of the jungle doesn't leave the book, Marlow simply carries it away with him. For something so straightforward there's an eerie power to it as Conrad creates a jungle based on the fears of a continent, mirroring an erosion of civilization that he doesn't seem to see as limited to the jungle. It may not resemble any jungle that ever existed in real life (maybe a good thing, considering how potentially offensive it is) but I will admit there is something weirdly primal about it, although someone better versed in Jungian archetypes may be better qualified to expound on that aspect. For everyone else, imagine those Burne Hogarth spiky "Tarzan" junglescapes, but even more foreboding, without the hope that friendly animals are going to come save you.
My Signet Classic copy also has Conrad's short story "The Secret Sharer", one of his better regarded tales. It probably should be titled "I Want to Be My Own Shadow" as on the surface its even more straightforward than "Heart of Darkness" was. A young sea captain on his first command pulls a guy on board that has escaped from a different ship, apparently for killing someone else, and for reasons of his own decides to hide the guy from everyone else on the ship, going to great lengths to make sure he's not found. At first glance this seems like a more po-faced version of all those William Hope Hodgson sea stories I read a few months back but Conrad's constant references to how similar the two look make you realize there's more metaphorically going on under the surface that he'd like you to know about. Unfortunately for him, the story lacks the atmosphere of its companion tale and while I'm sure there's someone out there who can argue that its really the better story, there's not much to make you want to go back to reading it, unlike "Heart of Darkness". However, it has a happier ending so if that's your criteria then by all means.
April 24, 2020
Heart of Darkness a 5⭐️ ; Secret Sharer a 3⭐️
The intimacy/connection theme—of two individuals in reality unknown to each other—powerfully developed in both stories but in ”Heart of Darkness” with a much greater depth of color and shade, use of symbol and broadness of character development. So beautifully done.
“Heart of Darkness” : my 1st Conrad. There’s nothing surface about this writer. He’s a man who knows well solitude’s camp, the maps one’s left to navigate in ones own company, the darkness that threatens to steals ones path. And truths. Truths. Truths.
“...the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core...”
One must take ones time to read him and give thought to what he has to share. Perhaps one ends by taking measure of oneself.
“It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own , and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.” 🥰
This reader will read more Conrad.
The intimacy/connection theme—of two individuals in reality unknown to each other—powerfully developed in both stories but in ”Heart of Darkness” with a much greater depth of color and shade, use of symbol and broadness of character development. So beautifully done.
“Heart of Darkness” : my 1st Conrad. There’s nothing surface about this writer. He’s a man who knows well solitude’s camp, the maps one’s left to navigate in ones own company, the darkness that threatens to steals ones path. And truths. Truths. Truths.
“...the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core...”
One must take ones time to read him and give thought to what he has to share. Perhaps one ends by taking measure of oneself.
“It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own , and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.” 🥰
This reader will read more Conrad.
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March 31, 2023This blew my expectations out of the water simply because I had often heard it was just a piece of colonialist propaganda but it wasn’t.
It’s got that raw, bare-bones perspective of man that breaks him down to a near-animal state while never losing sight of his soul.
The “heart of darkness” in this novel is also one of the best examples I’ve encountered of a central symbol that ties a whole story together both literally and figuratively—while still leaving things off with an open-ended question ripe for study at the end.
It’s got that raw, bare-bones perspective of man that breaks him down to a near-animal state while never losing sight of his soul.
The “heart of darkness” in this novel is also one of the best examples I’ve encountered of a central symbol that ties a whole story together both literally and figuratively—while still leaving things off with an open-ended question ripe for study at the end.
January 18, 2025
“Droll thing life is - that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself - that comes too late - a crop of unextinguishable regrets.”
The Horror! The Horror! Good book. Inaccessible and accessible at the same time. Kurtz gets described more than he gets developed, which makes for a pretty flimsy messiah. Marlow is quite the storyteller, though.
The Horror! The Horror! Good book. Inaccessible and accessible at the same time. Kurtz gets described more than he gets developed, which makes for a pretty flimsy messiah. Marlow is quite the storyteller, though.
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