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    Heart of Darkness
    Heart of Darkness
    Heart of Darkness
    Audiobook3 hours

    Heart of Darkness

    Written by Joseph Conrad

    Narrated by Ralph Cosham

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The story of the enigmatic Kurtz and his outpost in deepest Congo as told by Marlow is an adventure story that examines the intent and effects of colonization. It remains one of the most controversial and profound writings of world literature.

    Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, on December 3, 1857, in Russian occupied Poland. His father, who was fighting for Polish independence, wrote a poem asking his son to remain "without land or love" as long as Poland was enslaved. Conrad went to sea at sixteen and and served fifteen years aboard English ships. He became the captain of his own ships, sailing to Asia and Africa. He took up writing at the age of thirty two. It did not come easy: English was his fourth language after Polish, Russian and French, but he wrote with depth and beauty seldom matched. He was offered knighthood, but declined. He died August 3, 1924.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSpotify Audiobooks
    Release dateJan 1, 2000
    ISBN9781467610803
    Author

    Joseph Conrad

    Polish-born Joseph Conrad is regarded as a highly influential author, and his works are seen as a precursor to modernist literature. His often tragic insight into the human condition in novels such as Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent is unrivalled by his contemporaries.

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    Reviews for Heart of Darkness

    3.5/5

    181 ratings143 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book is so very well written that many aspects of it seem to me to verge on perfection. It springs to mind a hundred times in discussing writing craft, in discussing what a story should do, how framing can work, or indeed, when contemplating John Gardner's theory that novellas at their best have a "glassy perfection". This book manages to be an experience as well as a literary work, and the effect of its final pages is profound, worthwhile, and haunting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I finished Joseph Conrad’s novella, “Heart of Darkness” this morning. I’m really a bit Ho-hum about it, can’t really recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Conrad's Heart of Darkness explores the dark heart that lies within each of us and the extraordinary lengths of depravity we are willing to go to. This is mirrored in the "dark continent" of Africa in which Marlowe, our narrator for most of the story, travels as well as in the darkness within Kurtz and, to an extent, all of us. The story also left me pondering the darkness that lies within each of us and whether showing that was the purpose of opening and closing the story in London with Marlowe telling shipmates about his trip to Africa. Are any of us really better than Kurtz?
    • 1/5
      I ended up sparknoting it because my English teacher expected us to read the entire thing between two classes. Based on that, I didn't think it sounded too great. I know this is a ridiculous claim to make without actually reading the book but I did read parts of it and just couldn't get attached.
    • 4/5
      Heart of Darkness is an unusually well-written tale; and (of course) Conrad is a true word-smith. The characters' psychological depths are extraordinary, although the adventure spoken of could have been more exciting.
    • 4/5
      A little adventure on a tramp steamer through the Congo.
    • 4/5
      Odd that I've never read this before. Yes, yes, good and evil, light and dark, the souls of man, etc. Brilliant and visionary, but all a bit ponderous for me. Also, the guy who narrates this audio book edition, Scot Brick, he's American evidently and puts on a fairly awful English accent for the entire book. Tedious. Four stars if not for Mr. Brick.
    • 4/5
      A tortured last gasp of old-school (Old World?) colonialism, I wish this book could serve as a lesson to so many people and on so many levels; How NOT To Represent People Of Color, What Imperialism Does To One, Men Do The Craziest Things, PTSD And Its Colorful Effects, How To Get Away With Being A Psychotic Megalomaniac...the list goes on! And finally: How To Write A Book So That Your Reader Feels The Hopeless, Contradictory Weight Of White Guilt Vs. Survivor's Guilt.

      I did think it was good, though.
    • 4/5
      Marlow recounts his time as a steamer captain in the interior of Africa; and his meet-up with the enigmatic Kurtz. The story was much more caustic in tone and raw in setting than I remembered it as having been; and it's hard not to picture 'Apocalypse Now' while the story spools out; but it's a rich evocative story more than capably narrated by Kenneth Branagh. I know celebrity narrators can be an issues; but he told the story with just a touch of color, without over-doing it.
    • 4/5
      In an effort to class up the joint, I listened to this audio book performed by Kenneth Branagh.

      I say performed, because it wasn't just a plain reading of the story. He added depth to the observations and took what I might have found to be a boring story and breathed life into it.

      I enjoyed this quite a bit and would recommend this audio version to anyone interested in this classic tale.
    • 4/5
      A tale within a tale, like so much of Conrad. The inner tale describes a man who sets out as an employee of a trading company with "outlets" in Africa, along the Congo River, around 1900. The trade is in ivory, and some traders are better at getting it than others. The man describes one trader in particular, the best trader, Kurtz. It's a dark tale.
    • 5/5
      This book has been recommended to me by a friend and was sitting on my to read list for years. When I saw that most of its reviews are either 5 star or 1 star I was intrigued. The book did not disappoint. Beautiful, evocative, mesmerizing, horrifying, revolting, it describes an abyss of a human soul. A story within a story, narrator's description sets the stage and his story takes you away into then disappearing and now non-existent primal world thus forcing you to see the events through his lenses.
    • 4/5
      Jeremiah 17:9 sums up Marlow's message in Heart of Darkness: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.Who can know it?"Though the book is less gruesome and terrifying than Apocalypse Now,it has a stronger reach for an imagination."...the sea-reach of the Thames..." > ah, how Joseph Conrad lulls us in.If not for the title, we'd feel nice and cozy, sipping our holiday tea by the fireplace. Marlow again tells the story, sounding not as chipperas he did in LORD JIM, leading readers to "...the very end of the world...."There's still the author's trademark racist descriptions of "blacks" andcannibals do not fare as well as in Moby-Dick. No wonder Conrad described Melville as "romantic."Where Melville gives us Cannibal Light,Conrad serves up Cannibals-with-a-Hint.Thanks to both of them for sparring us more.The story feels unfinished without knowing the reasons for the behavior of Kurtz and his descent into madness. Did his base desires and actions propel him or was The Horror in his mind?
    • 5/5
      This classic book is very intriguing and well-written. Kenneth Branagh's phenomenal narration made this one of the best audiobooks I have ever listened to (thus the five-star review). The book itself would probably get 4 stars, despite its unfortunate racist overtones.
    • 5/5
      I thought for sure I'd hate this, given the racist language and the locale, which doesn't interest me. Instead, it was wonderful. A British man, yachting with friends on the Thames, tells them of a time when he took a job running a rundown boat up the Congo River. The central character to his mind is Kurtz (the character played by Marlon Brando in the film adaptation, "Apocalypse Now"), but to me it was the land and the narrator's reaction to his surroundings. There is a marvelous discourse early on about sailors being basically homebodies, because wherever they go their home is with them and they rarely leave it. And then there are his observations on the cannibals he hires to run the boat - as opposed to the whites on the boat, whom he thinks stupid and incomprehensible. And, of course, there are the words he hears on a dying man's lips: "The horror! The horror!". Just brilliant writing.
    • 2/5
      This was pretty boring. The reader was fantastic but I just never could get into the story. Not my cup of tea.
    • 4/5
      Brilliant, although you need multiple reads to uncover it.
    • 3/5
      Setting: The main part of the story is set in the heart of Africa where the narrator leans about man's inhumanity to man.Plot: Marlow recounts his journey on the Congo where he meets the infamous Kurtz.Characters: Marlow (protagonist)- commands steamboat; Kurtz (antagonist)- manager at Inner Station; Canibals- worked the shipSymbols: Africa as a place of darkness, Kurtz's depravity, restraint of the nativesCharacteristics: Moral reflectionResponse: I was at first bored by the prose but towards the end I became morbidly fascinated with Kurtz.
    • 5/5

      It was a breathtaking read. There are few books which make such a powerful impression as 'Heart of darkness' does. Written more than a century ago, the book and its undying theme hold just as much significance even today. Intense and compelling, it looks into the darkest recesses of human nature. Conrad takes the reader through a horrific tale in a very gripping voice.

      I couldn't say enough about Conrad's mastery of prose. Not a single word is out of place. Among several things, I liked Marlow expressing his difficulty in sharing his experiences with his listeners and his comments on insignificance of some of the dialogue exchanged aloud between him and Kurtz. The bond between the two was much deeper. Whatever words he uses to describe them, no one can really understand in full measure what he had been through. In Marlow's words:

      ". . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone. . . ."

      This was the first time I read this book which doesn't seem enough to fathom its profound meaning and all the symbolism. It deserves multiple reads.
    • 5/5
      I get annoyed at people who call this book racist for 2 reasons.1) The things said by the characters in this book were the truth of how people spoke during that time. If we start trying to erase our past bad behavior, we'll never learn anything in the future. 2) Anyone who's read more than just the book description on the back cover knows that this is a very snarky, very ironic book. Conrad obviously felt exactly the opposite of how the characters treated the Africans in the story. This book tells a story about European colonialism, but its very obvious that the author was showing great condemnation and contempt for it, not supporting it at all.
    • 3/5
      Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at!
    • 4/5
      The first time I read this novel, in high school, I really hated it. Having re-read it since then, however, I've come to actually appreciate and enjoy it. It seemed so much longer back in 11th grade! The writing is still awfully dense and confusing in places, but I've come to realize that this is rightfully considered a masterpiece.
    • 4/5
      "Mr Kurtz, he dead!" This novel is full of enticing and harrowing sentences like that. I found the novel dark and brutal, and Conrad's prose style led me along as if through the dense foliage of the Congo. Only when I finished the book did I start to wonder about everything that it said; whilst reading I was taken in by the mesmeric quality of some of the description. Reading 'Heart of Darkness' was not an enjoyable experience, but it was a disturbing one, which is something far rarer.
    • 4/5
      The fiction, and the non-fiction. The prose are not for the unexperienced reader. Part of this great story explains of the ills of colonialism at the turn of the century. It posits probably, an accurate account of what one may have seen on the ground and "up country" at that time. Conrad certainly opens the pages of man's baseness, his sordidness. I eagerly anticipate reading his other works.
    • 3/5
      As an quazi-fictional example of cultural exploitation, corporate greed, everything a civilization is not supposed to be, this novel is ripe for the reading...the descriptions, a narrative, are of finite detail. The setting is during the wontan colonization, of a central Afrikan state during the late 1800's and the need for continuous profits after western slavery was arrested...Mr. Marlow is sent in to the dark continent to bring out a rogue company man who specializes in acquiring ivory in every way possible. But alas, it was to late, like most of the unwelcomed guest, Kurtz was long dead, of mind body and spirit and subsequently died of jungle diseases real and imagined, not long after retrieval. In its narrative form, you have to pay close attention or get lost with the story....
    • 3/5
      This classic tale is of much historical interest, but I have to confess to finding it an unappealing read. Initially an engrossing adventure, it becomes mired in perplexing moral scruples. True, predominant attitudes toward the issues raised here have changed since the author’s time. No doubt I failed to set those changes aside and consider the book on the terms that prevailed in its own era—a time of colonialism and the rampant exploitation or both people and nature in Sub-Saharan Africa.

      Heated debates over the novella’s alleged endorsement of racist ideology have raged since the 1970s. I can only add a personal impression: Amid the wholesale destruction of animal life in service to the ivory trade, and the heartless maltreatment of African workers (which the narrator, at least, seems to recognize as inhumane), the book’s ethical outrage seemed misdirected at the focal character’s betrayal of civilization. It is implied that Kurtz “went native” to the disgraceful extent of taking an African woman as his willing consort—a shameful fact from which his European fiancée must be protected after his death.

      Literary critic Harold Bloom has applauded Conrad’s talent for ambiguity. So perhaps I misread this work entirely. Or perhaps I’m wrong to impose my ethical concerns on a book published in 1902. But I suspect many contemporary readers will have difficulties like mine. It’s a challenge to appreciate the talent in a tale that so thoroughly misses the moral target it appears to aim for.
    • 4/5
      I understand the purpose of using this book for instruction, but I found that it had major flaws that ultimately led to my dislike of it. Not every book is for everyone, though, so don't pass it up on my account.
    • 5/5
      The language is not easy, especially for a lazy American like me, but the book is excellent in many ways. I loved the imagery.
    • 3/5
      A beautifully, descriptive work. The descriptions of place are outstanding. The slow pace of the work mirrors the leisurely, lazy flow of the river and the slow lives of the characters. The darkness that inhabits the place and the human soul is always at the heart of this work. But, it didn't have the emotional pull on me. Therefore its a three for this book.
    • 2/5
      Most certainly would not recommend this book. It had a good theme, interesting characters, but I found it borderling painful to read.