Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

HEART DARKNESS, by Joseph Conrad published by Everyman's Library in 1967, my copy was from 1993. It was originally published as a series in 1899 and then later published as a book in 1902 (page:xxvi) in the Chronology section of the book. An introduction was written in 1993 by Verlyn Klinkenborg. In the introduction which I always read after I read the book, it was noted that 'it is hard to remember what a short book HEART OF DARKNESS really is' (page ix). I concur, I found the book extremely lengthy even though it is only 38000 words. I think it is because he uses descriptions and what I like to call 50 cent words, to give the book depth and flavor.

However saying that, I still miss things that could have been added. We come in to the book with 5 people on a yacht, the Director, the Lawyer, the Accountant, our original narrator and Marlow, who is really telling the story. ( I believe in my midway review I called him Malone, sorry about that bit of confusion.) Marlow is telling the story of his going to Africa to pilot a steamship to get a man named Kurtz, his ivory and his notes about the natives and the area. We get descriptions of how Marlow ended up going to Africa, his time waiting for the wrecked steamer to get fixed and then his voyage down the river to meet the man named Kurtz who everyone seems to think is brilliant. We finally meet the man at almost the end of the book and only really for a few pages. We feel this man's pain, craziness or sickness in the last words he says "The horror, the horror."

We get the title of the book in several forms in the telling of this story. It refers to the darkness of Africa's interior, the darkness of the hearts of the men exploiting Africa, the darkness Marlow feels in relation to his brief relation with Kurtz, the darkness that becomes Kurtz soul and finally on the last page when we are back on the yacht, the original narrator describes 'the black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky-seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'

I am told that this book was the basis for APOCALYPSE NOW the movie, I probably should watch it and see if it helps explain the book.