Heart of Darkness

By: Joseph Conrad

Narrated by: Scarlett M

An 1899 novella written by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time, Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II.

Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, who has been rumored ill, to his homeland, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. But Kurtz dies while being carried to civilization aboard a ship. Marlow later returns to his home city and is confronted by many people seeking things and ideas of Kurtz. Marlow eventually sees Kurtz's fiancée about a year later; she is still in mourning. She asks Marlow about Kurtz's death and Marlow informs her that his last words were her name - rather than, as really happened, "The horror! The horror!"

Public Domain (P)2010 Hudson Audio Publishing

A classic? Possibly the worst book I’ve ever read.

I listened to this Audible after my high school child was assigned to read it. Of all the wonderful books out there- teachers still assign books such as these that are so boring. In fact, I can say it’s one of the very worst books I’ve read in my life and I read 2-4 books a week. Audible version was awful- I could hear narrator turn pages and swallow. Background noises sounded like it was recorded in her basement.

Not a performance that adds a value to the book.

What disappointed you about Heart of Darkness?

The story is fine.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heart of Darkness?

The story is inspiring.

What didn’t you like about Scarlett M’s performance?

She has a great voice but not for the fiction story. Her calm temper, flat intonation and a constant speed of reading with pauses matches rather manuals, questionaries and formal documents.

What character would you cut from Heart of Darkness?

The story is great.

Any additional comments?

Sound is of bad quality. Not too bad but a reverb of a small, unfurnitured room near the bathroom, noise in the background, scraping, knocking and munching, sudden changes of frequency eqalisation or sound level and so on will make you nervous after several hours of listening.
The most annoying are the repetitions of phrases and words. repetitions of phrases and words. There are There are many sentences repeated by the reader for improvment. Those repetitions ought to be reviewed and filtered during the editing process of the audio, leaving only the best version. Unfortunately you have to listen all versions. It looks like editing did not happen, nor the editor was deaf. editor was deaf.

I consider this recording as a great work of College students but not as a professional performance that adds a value to the book.