With every re-reading it just gets better and better.

There are two short stories in this book: Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. I read Heart of Darkness first. Heart of Darkness was challenging to fully understand because the author kept shifting points of view. Also, the language is really difficult. It kind of feels like Conrad is racist to his own race, white because he makes them a "savage." Then, I read The Secret Sharer. I personally like The Secret Sharer better than Heart of Darkness, because I like the plot better. His theme is men against nature or men against men. The anonymous captain feels like a stranger to the ship and to his society. After finishing this book, I did some research about Joseph Conrad and was shocked that his first language was not English. His nationality was polish and he was not able to speak English fluently until his 20s. It was interesting how he chose to write his novel in English.

This is a rather short book but it took me a little over a week to read it, I liked it a lot but it was just so much information to digest and so heavy a subject that I could not read more than 10 pages at one sitting.

The subject matter is just so intriguing, even more so by the fact that the book was inspired by an actual journey the writter had to the region in question. In short, How do people feel about the unspeakable acts of depleting the earth of it's natural riches and man of their humanity? How do people view their own role on misery, while happening? Lucky for us authors leave these acounts for some to view and judge after history has made their wrong doing clear for all.

Joseph Conrad did a real wonderful job on this book. This book was a challenging book and it was pretty tough for me to comprehend it so I had to reread it over and over again. However I liked the challenge. But next time, maybe Joseph Conrad can make the text a little bit more simple to comprehend. I think the darkness within us and how Joseph Conrad explained the assimilation was excellent. It helped me explain that a lot of things in life, won't go the way you expect it to go. My favorite part of the book was actually the beginning because I was able to learn about the setting and how the Nellie was resting in the Thames River which is located in England. I never knew that. But I understand that they all start going a little crazier the more deeper they enter the darkness. Overall the book was amazing and I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading challenging stories.

I enjoyed The Secret Sharer. Heart of Darkness, I'll have to reread. What I loved most about this edition was the Introduction and (new) Afterword though.

Thinking about this book psychologically this book has an interesting premise: an enlightened Renaissance man of sorts goes out into the heart of Africa in search of ivory, loses his mind, becomes a god-like figure in the minds of local tribes, and is to be brought back to civilization. Wow! A mind fractured to pieces through loneliness and isolation, ego sent to the highest of heights, only to be brought back to civilization? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, that's all the book has going for it. Conrad seems to through up a smokescreen of words as if he doesn't want the reader to know what's going on (This might have been different if I was reading the book in the late 1800s, but I'm not, and neither are you). His depiction of the Africans seems pretty racist, as none of them have any real character besides being cannibals and followers of Kurtz. This might have been more acceptable at the time, but it makes you wonder why this book is such a classic.

I view this book as a serious critique of imperialism. I will somehow have to find and read Chinua Achebe's famous lecture, "An Image of Africa: "Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'". I do not see this book as racist, rather, (and this may be wishful thinking on my part) I see it as a story with a main character (Marlow) being dragged out of his ignorant stupor and awakened to the horrors of imperialism and the racism it cannot exist without.

As far as the writing goes, Conrad is my man. Intense, unrelenting, and truly dark. One of the darkest books I've ever read. I was thinking of Lord of the Flies and Edgar Allan Poe a lot while reading this.

Ok, I will also admit that it was incredibly difficult to not think Apocalypse Now while reading this, it's such an awesome film, is it not?


The short story that accompanies Heart of Darkness is also incredible. "The Secret Sharer" is a bizarre and eerie story about a sea captain who, one night, encounters a man attempting to climb up the latter of his ship, subsequently discovering that the man is his doppelganger and also a murderer.

Plus they use the word "poop" a lot in the story (another word for the stern deck of a ship.)
Ah.. simple pleasures.

I tried very hard with this book, at least twice, before finally committing to getting through it this time.

I don’t know why I wanted to like it, or why I gave it multiple chances after being bored by it every time. Honestly, I think Joseph Conrad wrote one of the most compelling novella titles in English literature.

Heart of Darkness. Oooooh!

But unfortunately the writing has very little in the way of a unique voice or style, and the book is just boring. Even toward the end when we finally get to see Kurtz, the story can’t redeem itself, can’t seem to find any momentum.

I have to say, though, that the opening few pages on the Thames are pretty fantastic in terms of setting the mood and contextualizing the world of British colonialism. Too bad it’s just SO BORING.

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.

Apocalypse 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.

I should have read this in a day. I read Crime and Punishment in less time.

Perhaps it was because I'm tired of Russian literature. Or maybe excessive use of internal monologue. But I'm thinking it's about the boats. The one thing I hate more than books about horses are books about boats and sailing.

Because lets face it, this was about sailing. Or more specifically a about a sailor. A story told by an old sailor about this time he met a strange man. Perhaps this might have been an interesting view of white men in Africa and their perception of the natives. But the truth is that it was about what seamen think about those of us who live on the land. The main character essentially spells this out in a scene where he finds a book left in an abandoned hut. He talks about how he takes solace in the idea of one sailor finding the words of another sailor.

I hate stories about sailing. Maybe you do, but I'm too biased to liked this book in anyway other than for in it's time it said something nothing else had said.

My second time reading this and I still don’t get it. What’s funny is, I’ll probably read it again. From the intro by Joyce Carol Oates: “All art is selective and therefore, from some perspective, unfair; no art can be universal, for no artist is universal; we are all local individuals, shaped by the customs of our tribes. The enduring artist is the creator not of perfect works but of works that transcend the circumstances of their creation and contribute to the aesthetic development of their craft. One need not identify with a writer’s cultural perspective to recognize that he or she may be possessed of unique, valuable gifts; like Joseph Conrad, an artist whose fiction repays close and repeated readings and whose unsparing tragic vision has a particular resonance for the twentieth century...”