Reviews (370)

A dark, haunting tale that's hard to forget
To shortly summarize, "Heart Of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad, is all about an English man named Marlow. He's a sailor and an explorer who takes command of a steamboat on an African river, during the Age of Imperialism. He takes his ship up the river in hopes of finding a man named Kurtz, who's something of a legend among the Englishmen living in Africa. What he finds along his journey causes him the question the morality of Imperialism, and he finds in the African natives something which resembles evil. And once he finds Kurtz, he realizes that, although the Imperialists may act superior and tough, they are just as savage and immoral as the natives.
Chilling tales that are open for many interpretations
This collection brings together three remarkable novellas by Joseph Conrad: Youth, Heart of Darkness and The End of the Tether. In Youth Charlie Marlow recounts the troublesome voyage of the old ship Judea and its wretched 600-ton cargo of coal. The same Marlow also serves as the narrator in Heart of Darkness, undoubtedly the most famous of the three stories. It details how Marlow takes on a foreign assignment as a ferry boat captain on the Congo River in order to restore communications with Kurtz, an eccentric ivory procurement agent isolated in the secluded midlands. Finally in The End of the Tether Captain Whalley, a former dare-devil skipper, sacrifices his retirement and embarks on a precarious voyage on the steamer Sofala in order to support his distant, beloved daughter.
A Journey We All Must Take
When Marlow begins his journey to find the mythical Kurtz in HEART OF DARKNESS, Joseph Conrad dares the reader to accompany Marlow on a voyage less into the physical jungles of darkest Africa and more into the mental labyrinth that human beings erect to protect themselves from the horrors that they themselves build. In this justly famous novella, Conrad depicts a pre-politically correct age when white men thought it only fair and inevitable that they plunder the riches of Africa all the while comforting themselves that they were uplifting the fallen state of a lowly people.
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Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Classics    3. Degeneration    4. Europeans    5. Fiction    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Trading posts    8. Fiction / Classics    9. Modern fiction   

Reviews (1)

Brilliance
Recently criticized by PC "academics" for its racism, Heart of Darkness remains one of the best books ever written. Yes, the book is racist, but it is no different than most of the prejudices held by Western Europeans of the period. That doesn't detract from the fact that this book is beautifully written (Conrad's long, twisting sentences, like the River Marlow travels up, have inspired my writing style to a great degree) and works as an amazing allegory for the dual nature of humanity: the battle between man and the inner beast. Before you let anybody turn you off of this book for its racism or its long sentence structure, just give it a read-through (its very short, though there's a lot underneath the surface). This is one trip upriver you won't regret. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Book Notes    3. Classics    4. Degeneration    5. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    6. Europeans    7. Fiction    8. Literature: Classics    9. Study Guides    10. Trading posts    11. Fiction / Classics    12. Modern fiction   

Reviews (40)

A Haunting Re-Readable Classic
Set in the Belgian Congo during the 19th century Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a journey to the darkest corners of the wilderness and the human heart. The story is told by Marlow, a sailor, who journeys to the Congo to captain a river steamer and ends up on a expedition to save an extrodinary ivory trader by the name of Mr. Kurtz.
The horror! The horror!
Being that it is only about 90 pages long, I was able to finish this story in one afternoon. It is easy to see why Whites and Blacks get such different messages from the book.
A fictional account of the novelist's experience in Africa
The story is that of a group of men aboard the Nellie, among them the anonymous narrator, who are told Marlow's experience in the Congo in the 1890s. Marlow's career, like Conrad's, spans an important period in the history of relations between Europe and Africa. The author's purpose is to show that the "civilising" mission actually reveals the "darkness" at its own heart instead of bringing light into the darkness as it claims.
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Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. BRITISH AND IRISH FICTION (FICTIONAL WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)    5. Fiction / Literary    6. Modern fiction   

Reviews (7)

A Prophetic Tale
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent brought up many interesting topics for discussion. The group of motifs Conrad chose to weave into his 1907 novel is highly political in nature: Anarchist views, science, capitalism, socialism, idealization, private ownership, poverty, the police, and possibly even Muslim extremism. For a novel written when it was, in many places The Secret Agent seemed an almost prophetic tale of Mr. Verloc, a secret agent in London.
This act of madness and despair
This novel is confusing, melodramatic and contains too many improbable developments.
The First Political Thriller
Joseph Conrad's novel "The Secret Agent" is referred to in many places as the prototype of today's political and espionage thrillers. Except that it's not really much of a political thriller at all. The agent of the title, Mr. Verloc, has grown complacent in his role as an informant to a foreign embassy in London and is pressured by his superiors into pulling off a shocking act of terrorism in order to prove his worth to his colleagues. The novel is mostly about the domestic repercussions that occur when things go badly wrong.
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Subjects:  1. Anarchists    2. Bombings    3. Classics    4. Conspiracies    5. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    6. Fiction    7. Literary    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. London (England)    10. British Isles    11. Classic fiction    12. Fiction / Classics    13. Literature/English | British Literature | 19th C   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (65)

To be, or not to be...romantic
I recently moved overseas and aside from the usual essentials one takes when moving so far I carried two books - the Bible, and my old copy of Lord Jim.I knew that I'd want to reread it in mynew environs, and I also knew that it'd be a more meaningful experience reading it abroad because, in many ways, my first reading of the novel inspired my decision to leave my country and not look back.
Lord Jim: Through Many Prisms Darkly
LORD JIM is the story of an ordinary man who commits what may or may not be an act of cowardice and spends the rest of his life trying to atone for his sin.What makes this story extraordinary is the difficulty the reader has assessing the nature of the original act and then judging whether Jim has been punished enough.Joseph Conrad does not make it easy to gauge accurately either the man or his act since we can see the act filtered only through the lens of a narrator who is too close to the case to be judged reliable.
Classic Tale of Moral Centre Lost and Found
Lord Jim has always been on my reading list since I was young. I had read "Heart of Darkness" three times, "Typhoon" and "The Nigger and the Narcissus." I found the tales and Conrad's abstract way of relating the exploits and thinking processes of simple people (many or whom I could readily identify with) resonating and profound.
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Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Literature - Classics / Criticism    3. Literature: Classics    4. Classic fiction    5. Fiction / Classics    6. Modern fiction   

Reviews (11)

Leggat = The Captain:True or False?
In THE SECRET SHARER, Joseph Conrad posits an interesting choice for the Captain protagonist: should he follow maritime law and return a self-confessed murderer to his ship to face justice or should he allow his personal feelings to intrude and harbor a fugitive and let him escape? On the surface, this seems like a fairly routine choice, but in the world of Joseph Conrad no choices are ever easy.Readers who come to this novella from HEART OF DARKNESS are well aware that Conrad likes to place hesitancies in the minds of readers, most of which are couched in symbolic language which suggest a tapping into their psyches.In the case of the Captain, his choice is confounded by his perception of the man Leggatt who climbs aboard his ship.As the Captain sees Leggatt, he sees a man who is described in terms of one who is physically incomplete.Leggatt appears to be headless and as he ascends the rope from water to deck, Conrad's imagery suggests a watery re-birth.The Captain sees Leggatt and in the pages that follow calls him terms that circle back to himself: my double, my secret sharer, and my other self.It is clear that in Leggatt the Captain sees more than just a little bit of himself.They went to the same school with the Captain graduating only a few years prior. At this point, Conrad suggests that the Captain's decision not to hand Leggatt over to justice may not be simply a matter of identifying with Leggatt on a superficial level in that they merely share some common traits. With the Captain's heavily symbolic language, Conrad probes more deeply in the Captain's psyche and by extension in the reader's psyche by suggesting that the Captain's willingness to protect Leggatt even at the cost of his own career and the safety of his ship and crew lies in his subconscious linking of himself to Leggatt.For the Captain to hand over Leggatt to the law and to possible execution would be tantamount to being complicit in his own doom.To further complicate matters, on an even more subconscious level, Conrad raises the possibility that there is no Leggatt at all and that their entire relationship, replete with conversation, mutual interaction, and hiding Leggatt in his bathroom may have existed only within the Captain's mind.If this latter interpretation holds water, then in order for the Captain to maintain the illusion of Leggatt's existence, he had to act as if Leggatt truly existed, even to the point of endangering his ship by approaching too close to shore to allow Leggatt to jump off and swim to safety to a nearby isle.Conrad leaves the reader to ponder the state of mind of the Captain. When the Captain sees a floating hat at the end when Leggatt has jumped ship, that hat serves to remind the Captain and possibly the reader as well that the difference between reality and illusion may be no more significant than whether an abandoned hat floats or sinks in a stormy sea.

Actually...
Just to clarify: English was Conrad's third language.Polish and French preceded it.

Should Have Been Kept a Secret
I am being a bit too harsh with the title to my review, but I really did not enjoy this short (but it seems so, so long) story.Just as Conrad's other novel, Heart of Darkness, has symbolism and deeper meanings- so follows the Secret Sharer.Simply, I did not like this book.I would have been completely lost if it were not for the helpful introduction written by Albert Guerard.I read the introduction after reading the story, and it shed a lot of light on the book.Though I did not enjoy the book, I am impressed with the man behind the book- I cannot believe that English is his second language.He also has an impressive personal life history- it seems as if he has experienced everything he writes about, this adds value to his works. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adventure stories, English    2. Classics    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Literature: Classics    5. 19th century fiction    6. Fiction / Classics    7. Short stories   

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Literature/Classics    2. Action & Adventure - General    3. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    4. Classics    5. Juvenile Fiction    6. Unabridged Audio - Fiction/General   

Reviews (1)

The Return
An interesting if unspectacular foreword which bespoke an entire cast of two characters-an added attraction was the demure innunendo thrown in that the lady did not think or speak much.
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Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924    3. General    4. Literary Collections    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Literature: Classics    7. FICTION_GENERAL    8. Fiction / General    9. Genre Fiction    10. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Short Stories (single author)    4. General & Literary Fiction    5. Short stories   

Reviews (1)

Two Book Length Novels, Three Long Tales, Six Short Stories
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Subjects:  1. Literary    2. Literature - Classics / Criticism    3. Literature: Classics    4. Fiction / Literary   

Features

• Unabridged

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    2. Classics    3. Fiction    4. Literature: Classics    5. Unabridged Audio - Fiction/General   

Features

• Audiobook
• Unabridged

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Fiction/General    2. Audiobooks    3. Classics    4. Fiction    5. Literary    6. Psychological    7. Unabridged Audio - Fiction/General    8. Chronological Period/19th Century    9. Cultural Region/African    10. Fiction / Classics    11. Unabridged Audio / Fiction/General   

Reviews (13)

The Reluctant Revolutionary
Joseph Conrad had famously hard feelings for the Russians, occupiers of his Polish homeland. In "Under Western Eyes" (1911), Conrad employs tough love in depicting the Russian character, hopelessly divided between reckless radicalism and reactionary reasonlessness, between devotion and despair.
Words are the greatest foes of reality
An English teacher (the 'Western Eyes') tries to find the truth behind the autobiography of a Russian agent, for 'words are the greatest foes of reality', and 'speech has been given for the purpose of concealing our thought.'
"All revolt is the expression of extreme individualism."
Impoverished Russian student Kirylo Razumov doesn't have a great deal in life to look forward to. From an obscure background--and possibly illegitimate--Razumov's one dream is to write a prize essay for an upcoming examination. Pathetically, he imagines that winning the coveted silver medal granted by the Ministry of Education will lead to an illustrious career. As Razumov daydreams about the contest, a few miles away, fellow student and revolutionary Victor Haldin throws a bomb on a politician. The politician is killed and Haldin seeks refuge with Razumov until he can safely leave St. Petersburg.
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Subjects:  1. 1904-1914    2. 20th Century English Novel And Short Story    3. Bombings    4. Classics    5. College students    6. Fiction    7. History    8. Literary    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Literature: Classics    11. Russia    12. Saint Petersburg (Russia)    13. Terrorism    14. Fiction / Literary   

Reviews (4)

Classic Conrad: for adults only

This is a good book if you only look deeper...
For the other reviewers, I can't believe that the only things you gathered from the book was that it was about 2 gay men and a typhoon.The book is about how people react in times of crisis, and how sometimes you can't run away from your problems; you have to face them head-on.We have MacWhirr, who is innocent, calm, and quiet, yet unwaivering and unknowingly bold during the time of disaster.Then there's Jukes, who jabbers constantly, passes judgement on people, and during time of crisis he freezes, is mostly pessimistic, and practically daydreams.And finally, there's the second mate, who is an all around sneaky and immoral person, who during bad times often "jumps ship" and declares defeat before it's even begun.MacWhirr says many times throughout the story that you have to face things, and you don't know if somethings really bad unless you have been right in the middle of it.It's a story about a man who's had his normal, peaceful life turned upside-down by an unrelenting and, in the end, revealing storm.

Huh? What was that about????????????
I basically have no idea what the author was writing about throughout the whole entire story.Conrad confused me...obviously he was very confused when he wrote it, too!Also, if he was trying to convey a story about acouple of fruity people in Typhoon, it worked!!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Literary    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Literature: Classics    6. Sea stories, English    7. Fiction / Literary    8. Literature/English | British Literature | 19th C    9. Modern fiction    10. Short stories   

Subjects:  1. Anarchists    2. Bombings    3. Conspiracies    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Literary    8. London (England)    9. Royal Greenwich Observatory    10. Fiction / General    11. Modern fiction   

Reviews (63)

"that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask"
The prose in this book is not actually very difficult. I suspect that what people tend to find difficult is the singularly unpleasant nature of the characters taken together with a very different look at terrorism than is popular in literature and film today.
Don't give up on this book halfway!
Admittedly, the first half (dare I say, two thirds?) of this novel seemed to me rather plodding-- until one key event occurs and the plot starts to kick into full gear.The finale rivets the reader to the page, suddenly revealing multiple layers of character, plot, and theme.The effect is a blend of Hitchcock with a dash of Dostoevsky.I am now eager to go back and re-read the entire book again for its deceivingly subtle multi-dimensionality.I highly recommend the Signet version as the introduction (which should be read after the novel) points out several less-than-obvious motifs.

The First But Not The Best
Shadowy embassy official Mr. Vladimir is running out of patience with the fellow he has hired to sow dissent in London, one Adolf Verloc. You may, too, long before the anticlimactic end of "The Secret Agent."
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Subjects:  1. General    2. Literature - Classics / Criticism    3. Literature: Classics    4. Fiction / Classics    5. Literary studies: general   

Reviews (8)

Deep
The four tales in this collection are beautifully composed; they are art, not just stories.Each story is deep in its unique complexities.Each one has plots and subplots and paints an impeccable image of the story upon the reader's mind.And when I look back upon the book as a whole, upon the adventurous stories, the excitement and emotion that the author presents so exquisitely, I can't help but be extremely impressed.

4 Monkeys
If you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, would they eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare? Who knows? Actually haunting...
The word's thrown around a lot, but this is the only case where I've actually been literally haunted by a book. It surfaces in the mind when I don't intend for it to, and its disturbing. I've never been really psychologically messed with by a book like this. I mean, not bad, but I get chills thinking about it. Like someone said, the images are great. The ship firing into the continent is one of those I can't get out of my head. And for those of you who are curious after seeing Apocolypse Now, I think they really messed up the Kurtz character. Its one of, if not the one of, my favorite movies, but he's so overacted and the script never really tells what the horror is. From the movie I got that it was the situation and man's situation, but from the book it is definitely the mind and soul, in my opinion. Any social commentary in the book is secondary to the more philosophical and psychological, here, I feel.Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Classics    3. Degeneration    4. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    5. Europeans    6. Fiction    7. Imperialism    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Short Stories (single author)    11. British Isles    12. Fiction / Classics    13. Literature/English | British Literature | 19th C    14. Modern fiction    15. Short stories   

Reviews (4)

Book for the Die Hard Conrad fans- NOT for the casual reader
I love any book by Joseph Conrad and am on my way to reading just about everything he wrote.My next goal is to re-read it all again.