rkroenert's Full Review: Joseph Conrad, Paul B. Armstrong, R. G. Hampson, P...
Many people call this novella, published in 1902, the first real book of the 20th century, in that it deals with loss of innocence, moral ambiguity, exploration of the subconscious - all issues that factored prominently into the past hundred years.
In college I tried to read "Heart of Darkness," but couldn't make it through, despite its small size. Conrad's thick prose just put me to sleep. But I recently read "King Leopold's Ghost," a gut-wrenching book about the exploitation of the Congo around the turn of the century. With that book as factual background, I took another shot at "Heart of Darkness," and this time I tore through it.
The book works at a purely surface level, as an exotic adventure, but it's even more powerful when read as a symbolic journey - either to the core of an individual psyche or to the mysterious heart of the human condition. And what Marlow, the narrator, discovers there is enough to convince him that truly letting go - as Kurtz did - is to become immersed in a spiritual darkness that cannot be explained or escaped.
"Apocalypse Now" (based loosely on "Heart of Darkness") introduced me to the phrase "The horror! The horror!" - but reading it in Condrad's book was far more chilling.
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