Review: Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
This book had been sitting on my shelf for more than 5 years. I bought this penguin classic version for like 4 bucks, tried (and failed) to read it on a few occasions through the years. So recently during a lull between some other books, I decided to give it another serious try. It was after all, only like 110 pages, how difficult could it be, right?
It actually was very difficult, to say the least. The yellowing book spent a long time on my desk (brought down from the shelf) after 2 pages, before I decide to finish it off last night.
It’s a hard book to read. Not only for the 1900 language, but the long and bulky narrative is cumbersome for those more unfamiliar with the style. It’s basically a monologue by the seaman Marlow recounting his adventure into deep Africa for a European trading company. A huge portion of the narrative focuses on two things – the mysterious Mr Kurtz, the legendary ivory hunter and the incivility of the African natives.
On the first point, Mr. Kurtz doesn’t make an entry until late into the book. But by then Marlow had heard so much of the corrupted yet revered man, compelling him to meet and understand Kurtz. I understand Mr. Kurtz is supposed to be symbolizing some profound yet depraved human condition here, but by then I didn’t really cared about the man or Marlow's self-absorbing rhetorics.
On the treatment of the natives, one has to understand the background of the book. I won’t go into that, but I think I am not alone in feeling uneasy throughout the book.
So now finally I have read ‘Heart of Darkness’. Was it any good for me? No, I can’t say I enjoyed it all.
In fact there were large portions of the text where I was asking ‘where is Conrad going with this?’ Frankly, I really felt there were many other so-called classics I could I have spent my time with, given at 100-pages, the disappointment was somewhat softened. OK, now I can start on another book.
If you liked this book, I recommend:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
by Joseph Conrad
This book had been sitting on my shelf for more than 5 years. I bought this penguin classic version for like 4 bucks, tried (and failed) to read it on a few occasions through the years. So recently during a lull between some other books, I decided to give it another serious try. It was after all, only like 110 pages, how difficult could it be, right?
It actually was very difficult, to say the least. The yellowing book spent a long time on my desk (brought down from the shelf) after 2 pages, before I decide to finish it off last night.
It’s a hard book to read. Not only for the 1900 language, but the long and bulky narrative is cumbersome for those more unfamiliar with the style. It’s basically a monologue by the seaman Marlow recounting his adventure into deep Africa for a European trading company. A huge portion of the narrative focuses on two things – the mysterious Mr Kurtz, the legendary ivory hunter and the incivility of the African natives.
On the first point, Mr. Kurtz doesn’t make an entry until late into the book. But by then Marlow had heard so much of the corrupted yet revered man, compelling him to meet and understand Kurtz. I understand Mr. Kurtz is supposed to be symbolizing some profound yet depraved human condition here, but by then I didn’t really cared about the man or Marlow's self-absorbing rhetorics.
On the treatment of the natives, one has to understand the background of the book. I won’t go into that, but I think I am not alone in feeling uneasy throughout the book.
So now finally I have read ‘Heart of Darkness’. Was it any good for me? No, I can’t say I enjoyed it all.
In fact there were large portions of the text where I was asking ‘where is Conrad going with this?’ Frankly, I really felt there were many other so-called classics I could I have spent my time with, given at 100-pages, the disappointment was somewhat softened. OK, now I can start on another book.
If you liked this book, I recommend:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
posted by Yoong Family at 11:12 am
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