Heart of Darkness (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

What struck me about Conrad's tale was the richness of his descriptions. The way he combines words in a highly unorthodox way succeeds in giving sections of the work a very disturbing feel to them. I suspect this stems from English being Conrad's third language. In any case, it gives the text an unpredictable tenor that keeps the reader in a state of unease, just as the author intended.

The themes are no less profound. I particularly enjoyed Conrad's critique of Western civilization - comparing the tribesmen with the supposedly superior whites and comparing the Congo with the Thames of 1000 years ago.

For all its virtues, this book is quite disorientating and requires careful reading. At several points I had to reread pages to determine who was talking to whom. In particular, the point at which Kurtz finally makes his appearance is (perhaps intentionally) skimmed over without fanfare. I feel that another read or two is in order.

This Penguin Classics edition comes with some extras. Some, like the analysis of changes made between the typescript and the book, are for enthusiasts only. Others, such as the timeline and explanatory notes are essential to any reader. It's a slim volume that is appropriately sombre-looking.

A genuine classic.

A timeless reminder of the evils of big organisations and the gullibility of human beings.

The inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, this was originally written in 1899 as a commentary on European colonialism and is based on Conrad's own experiences as a steamboat captain on the Congo.

The book's message is the inhumanity of colonialism and how apparently benign structures, in this case a European trading company, can support and tolerate disgusting and ugly practices.

The plot has Marlow, a steamboat captain, take a job on the Congo with a Belgian trading company. He travels up river to supply Kurtz, who is said to be a remarkable man and controls the upper part of the river for the company. His methods of control turn out to be extreme violence, but Marlow is more impressed with Kurtz's intellectual honesty about the situation than the company's pretended good governance (for example the ship's native crew are paid in copper wire with which they are supposed to buy their own food but which in practice is untradeable and so they starve to death). Marlow falls in love with Kurtz in the way that supporters fell for (say) Hitler.

It's pretty strong stuff and one assumes it is meant ironically to point out the ultimate logic of the colonial position.

It's not an easy read, partly because it's not always very well written (unlike, say, Conrad's The Secret Agent) but mainly because the themes and events set out are approached obliquely. Quite what is going on between Kurtz and the Company and between Kurtz and the natives is never spelled out. Nor is it clear why Kutz is widely regarded as a great man, who has attracted a band of devoted followers. This doesn't matter to Conrad's themes, but it's never obvious where the book is going and some of the scenes and interactions are open to any number of interpretations. This is probably the book's attraction and fans of ambiguity will enjoy mulling over the possible meanings. Others will find it frustrating.

Joseph Conrad wrote this classic novella on the "clash of civilizations"; or, much more appropriately, a clash of non-civilizations more than 110 years ago. It was based on Conrad's brief experience working in the then Belgian Congo. There is at least partial validity to comparative studies on the respective merits and de-merits of the various colonial powers, and in most cases Belgian rule has ranked near the bottom, reflected by a brutal rule dedicated solely to enriching the ruling power, with virtually no benefit to the native people. This book could only help reinforce that assessment.

English was Conrad's third language, yet he mastered it better than virtually all native-English speakers. His prose is rich and dense. Along with Melville, his depictions of the sea in its varying conditions are evocative, and his novel Typhoon and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics) is a classic to the awesome power of the ocean. In this novella, there are strong descriptive passages of the river when the boat is anchored in the Thames estuary, and Marlow tells the tale of his encounter with Kurtz, along with his brief stint in the Congo, in the style of a flashback.

The "heart" of the book, as it were, is the interactions between two extremely different cultures, and the exploitation of one by the other. It is the late 19th Century, London is the capital of the largest empire the world has ever known, yet Conrad makes the point that a mere 2,000 years or so earlier, if a Roman trireme had ventured up the Thames, it would have been going into "the heart of darkness," on the very outer edges of its empire, in similar circumstances to one venturing up the Congo River today.

In Marlow's flashback tale, there are passages which are deeply empathetic to the natives bearing the "burden of white men," and there are other passages that are certainly racist by today's standard, so one or the other could be cited to prove a thesis. There is a dramatic buildup to Marlow's meeting with Kurtz, with immense praise for the most effective agent of the company tempered with hints of certain irregularities, as though he might have been out in "the bush" too long, and "gone native." It turns out that he was a demi-god within the company, providing far more ivory through his unorthodox methods than other agents, but to the natives he had become a god, in part, because he adopted their ways. It is very much a tale of power, and its corrupting influences. This book was adapted as a metaphor for the Vietnam War, and starred Marlon Brando as Kurtz, in Apocalypse Now Redux [DVD] [1979] a movie I truly detested since I felt it had distorted the essence of the American involvement in Vietnam. Don't know if it has been adapted as a metaphor for the corporate world, but I could imagine it ringing truer there.

There is a poignant scene at the end, in which Marlow must try to convey the circumstances of Kurtz's demise to his fiancé. And reminiscent of Paul in Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" - Erich Maria Remarque (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations), when confronted with a similar task, the only proper solution is to lie.

Brilliant prose, rich in insights on the human condition, this novella, particularly on the second read, retains its appropriate designation as a 5-star classic.

(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on August 16, 2010)