Heart of Darkness

By: Joseph Conrad

Narrated by: Brian Hall

Exposing the tense relations between white colonists and African natives, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad explores the history of European colonialism in Africa, which has been known for many reasons as the Dark Continent. The book is framed as a story that is being recounted, focusing on a sailor named Marlow who is employed by an ivory trading company, known simply as the Company. Marlow must venture along the Congo, and as a result he witnesses firsthand some of the effects and consequences of European colonialism on the various parts of Africa that he encounters. Many of his observations of how the colonists treated the African natives are horribly tragic, as the natives are overworked and severely underappreciated.

His introduction to this view of Africa, however, is not the only mysterious part of the novel. Marlow's meeting and relationship with Kurtz, who is held in high regard by the local African natives, materializes into a depiction of race relations and cultural misconception. Since its publication, Heart of Darkness has triggered heated conversations about the perceptions of Africa and how African natives have been wrongfully perceived throughout the years.

Public Domain (P)2015 A.R.N. Publications

A Literary Classic

The Heart of Darkness remains a literary classic.

Unfortunately, the narrator could not seem to communicate any of the emotions that run like a dark undercurrent throughout the book. His emphasis and his tone, at least at times, seemed wrong.

Or, maybe, no one can really understand what it is like to succumb to nature, to descend into oneself and to go mad at the sight--no one, that is, who has not himself "peeped over the edge."

way too descriptive

I thought this would be a classic book, and maybe it is. but the amount of detail makes you lose your train of thought and the narrators accent made it difficult to concentrate. there is way too much detail