Okay, I am approaching this book review as a book lover, not
an English Literature student which means I’m going to be openly honest in
terms of how difficult and wordy this book is, and it really is!
As a Literature student, I understand why this was on the
reading list. With is beautiful references to the darkness in people, and the
darkness of the country around them, it’s a perfect book to analyse for an
essay. In real life, it can take a while to get into the language; I’m
definitely going to have to re-read the sucker before we study it in class!
In Heart of Darkness,
we follow Charles Marlow for the majority of the novella who takes an assignment
in Africa with a trading company. We see the dark side of the European colonisation
which to some readers can be quite distressing. The clear racism in this book
is just what was done during the time of publication but Conrad uses Heart of Darkness to highlight the
darkness of the treatment of the African natives, as well as the darkness of
the wilderness around them.
I fully enjoyed this book, the writing is beautiful and this
book proves you can learn a lot about a part of history in a short amount of
pages.
Characters come and go throughout the novel but there are
two main ones, Marlow and Kurtz. Kurtz, an ivory collector is a character I
could never set my finger upon. I never knew if I should like or dislike the
man but thinking upon him now, I think that was the point. He was only ever
trying to do his job, but went the wrong way about it. This doesn’t stop people
from instantly adoring his character. Marlow however, is definitely a character
that can be trusted in my eyes and his narration is utterly fantastic.
Out of 10, I’d give Heart
of Darkness a 7/10 as it is a classic and I’m glad I’ve had to read it, but
if you don’t concentrate on every word, you’ll definitely have to go back and it’s
slightly difficult to read.
Did you enjoy this review? Have you ever read Heart of Darkness?
Lots of love,
Sia xxx
You're making me sad that I didn't pick VicGoth - I am going to have to make a list of books to read once uni is done with and this one will definitely be on it. Sarah. X
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