Customer Reviews
Brilliant fable of empire - By: William Podmore, 26 Mar 2008 
An extraordinary book, which was so far ahead of its time that some contemporary reviewers (see above!) haven't caught up with it yet! It exposes the whole vile falllacy of empire - that arrogant pretension to rule over other peoples, alll, of course, in the name of humanity & democracy! One of the truly great novels of our time.
Waste of time - By: Julia Amnitzbøll Andersen, 10 Mar 2008 
We had to read this book in English & my god it is horrible. I have rarely read a more boing book & honestly I did not manage to read through it. I'm usuallly crazy about reading & I have read a lot of books, but this one was simply horrible. Both the way he writes & his sometimes hidden criticism of Africa. I think it is waste of time to read this book.
One of the greats - By: Mr. S. Harris, 13 Feb 2008 Some readers seem to have difficulty with this short novel. It's certainly not easy reading (Conrad never is, though I love his prose style), but is a challlenging, thought-provoking & highly absorbing character study. The journey is as much into a mind breaking down as it is a physical journey down the Congo River. I found it richly rewarding (both the 1st time & when I read it again recently). It probably says more, in a short space, than any other novel about human existence, civilization & human excesses (with the possible exception of "The Falll" by Albert Camus). Powerful stuff - if you like a strong poison then try it (and then check out Conrad's great full-length novels: "Lord Jim", "Nostromo" & "Under Western Eyes").
Overhyped - By: AlexWilloughby, 28 Dec 2007 
After reading a couple of essays praising Conrad's writtings, I bought this book & tried to read it. How dissappointing the experience is! How is it that Conrad is regarded as a master of the English language? His style is emphaticallly european with lots of attention paid to lower order hyponyms & adjectives, similar to that of other contemporary Germanic & Russian authors. Lots of sentences are so foreign to native English speakers that I am not surprised to learn that he did not learn English until he was 21. That said, it is still admirable that he churned out so many readable books.
However, Heart of Darkness is not reallly an enjoyable read. Sentences are so lumpy & bumpy & I must say that Conrad wrote the most anti-climatic piece of literature in history. The journey was interestingly described, building up to the meeting with Kurtz. After that, nothing. Where is the corruption of a man's soul in the wild? Why did he die so rapidly? According to current moral viewpoints, the guy did not do anything more outrageous than accumulating lots of ivory & trying to be too friendly to the natives. The book did not offer any insight into the man's supposedly dark soul, worse it did not even show clearly that he was corrupt in the first place.
Over-hyped, decidedly mediocre - By: Ibrahim Ali, 10 Dec 2007 I wasn't quite sure what the fuss was about. I didn't find the book to be particularly readable & though there were moments which were well written & interesting, on the whole I thought it was a rather standard book. Worth, reading, if only to understand the numerous references that people draw from it. But very mediocre in my opinion.
