Heart of Darkness (MP3 CD)

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Summary: The horror! the horror!
Review: Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is without a doubt, in my mind, the most remarkable English language novel ever written. Its masterful prose, its measure of depth, its effective and horrifying look into the depths of the human soul--Joseph Conrad's masterpiece stands head and shoulders above the competition. Conrad, born Polish, wrote this book in Engish (most definitely not his first language), yet every word, sentence and mark of punctuation is used exquisitely. Don't let its short length fool you--every word of "Heart of Darkness" goes toward making it a substantial read, and one that will stay with you for years to come. Conrad has the guts to question the true way of life--should we recognize the selfish, sickening darkness that envelops the whole of mankind, or should we ignore that fact, climb out of depression, and live a blissfull lie in denial of the horrible alternative? "Heart of Darkness" has changed my life--let it change yours as well.

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Summary: The Lies of God:
Review: That may very well be an apt alternate title for Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. There is something so intense about the legend of Kurtz, about the mythologized rumor of a White Man of heightened civilization plunging headfirst into the purest and most naturalistic of the human abyss. The Jungle, that lost and unexplored place where all the benefits of wealth or education are washed away in the murky hindsight of the thrill of survival. Heart of Darkness explores that taste, that bitter residue left in the mouth after struggling up to our feet and building a modern world around all this unchanging nature. It speaks far into the past of that natural root, that call it poison or call it cure which once grew so feral on the yet to be tamed planet earth. God was more of an idea then, not so much a broken apart and compartmentalized Super-Being that ruled benevolently over a variety of chosen faiths. Here is the bubbling foundation of the beginnings of organized belief.

For Kurtz is God, or at least 'a god', who's myth has grown so spectacular that even reality will not crush his lingering worship. Heart of Darkness is a story of words put into action (Kurtz is a preacher who has somehow mastered the technique of converting his listeners). The words are The Idea, the marginalizing of God into a single aspect, with a face plastered on and a motive and agenda made perfectly clear. Kurtz is this God, this Holy Messiah and pained Anti-Christ. Conrad is attacking not religion but belief itself. He attacks humbling one's self, attacks humility at the core by exploring the myth of a man who struggles with neither. Marlow merely questions (Marlow always questions) and tends to seek ways to expose the foul stench of the absolutes of faith.

Kurtz is not a hero and yet is to be admired. He comes across, at times, as a cross between a benevolent slave-master and a bloody-thirsty ivory trader. He is every good and every bad of all the extremes combined. Such is not the very middle but is a world waiting to explode.

Heart of Darkness is not about blasphemy, is not about tragedy or sadness, about darkness and light. Heart of Darkness is about the death of the human soul. It only seeks to discover what caused the destruction of humanity. Conrad seems, in most of his work, to take no sides with anything and so cannot be said to be suggesting a new way to live. All he does is expose, in a frequently crippling fashion, many of our modified or wholly mythologized most sacred and holy beliefs.

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Summary: Heart of darkness
Review: The book I read was The Heart of Darkness. There is a group of men aboard an English ship that is sitting on the Thames. The group includes a Lawyer, an Accountant, a Company Director or you can call him a Captain, and a man without a specific profession called Marlow hes sortof unidentified through out the book. A ship that they are all on is called the Nellie. It's a cruise down the Thames it will rest there and wait in tide. The main point of this book is that Marlow the main character leaves Congo where the ship was going and it left everyone upset and looked at him as if he was going on the "dark side" Marlow says, the truth is "too dark" to tell. His bad decline is in vain if no one learns of it. This is completely the point of Marlow's telling the tale the people aboard the Thames River ship. Once led to civilization, now leads into darkness.

If I was to rate this book from a 1 to 5 I would rate this book a 4 because it had a lot of detail and kept you interested and wanting to read more and more. I recommend this book to people that are interested in traveling and likes books that keep you guessing and questioning what's going to happen next.



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Summary: Three is not the charm
Review: This time is my third go at reading Heart of Darkness. The first and second time I was under the pressure of time and grades for high school and later college. As the book is short in length, both teachers only gave one or two days to read the book. At least for me, it's a dense book. The further into the story I get, the harder it is to read. It's as if the writing style mimics the growing darkness of the hinterland as Marlow gets closer to finding Kurtz. Kurtz, now, is, in my humble opinion, a let down. All through the book he's played up as this superhuman man who knows the wilds of Africa better than any one and is of such a character that he has devotees! Yet when he is finally found, he is but a husk of a man, insane from illness and is only in the story in person for a couple of pages. Even after Marlow has met him face to face, he continues to sing the man's praises! Somehow in that brief and uninspiring meeting Marlow is converted?