The Official Blurb
Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.
We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own terrible experience in the Congo.
This work has been reinterpreted and adapted into many modern forms, the most well known being the film Apocalypse Now.
My Review
This story has become a classic and everyone must have heard the phrase "the horror" which appears to have started in this story.
We have a story that is not quite an adventure and not quite a travelogue. It falls somewhere in between. Oddly we have savages attacking the "white men" on a river boat but yet it never quite reaches the level of excitement that constitutes adventure.
What we have a story that starts as a journey through the jungle and then becomes some odd kind of relationship story between the main protagonist and the mystery character "Kurts".
I have to say that I picked up this story because of its "classic" branding, yet I dont really feel it lived up to that title. The story was fairly bland, the "relationship" was never really developed and appeared to rest on assumptions I could not fathom.
Sadly disapointed.
Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3
Total score 5/9
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