Audiobook4 hours
Heart of Darkness
Written by Joseph Conrad
Narrated by David Rintoul
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Joseph Conrad’s searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable journeys ever taken
Quite simply the scariest book ever written, this is a searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable journeys ever undertaken – to the heart of a geographical and psychological wilderness from which no-one returns unscarred. For this isn’t simply a journey up an uncharted river into a geographical wilderness; rather, it’s a trip deep into our collective subconscious.
This story – about what happens when so-called “civilized” human beings go off the rails - was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie “Apocalypse Now”.
Conrad himself had undertaken such a river journey as a ship’s captain back in 1889 when he was in his early 30’s and before he took to writing full time. Back then, the Congo Free State, as this area of Africa was known, was a Belgian colony under the personal control of King Leopold II.
Atrocities were commonplace, to the point where the international community finally had to sit up and take notice; in a report published in 1904, over 3 million people were said to have died as a direct result of European intervention in the area.
It has long been argued whether “Heart of Darkness”, which first appeared in 1902, was in any way influential in bringing Leopold’s violent regime to the public’s attention; but whether or not, it remains a searing indictment of human rapacity – and depravity.
Quite simply the scariest book ever written, this is a searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable journeys ever undertaken – to the heart of a geographical and psychological wilderness from which no-one returns unscarred. For this isn’t simply a journey up an uncharted river into a geographical wilderness; rather, it’s a trip deep into our collective subconscious.
This story – about what happens when so-called “civilized” human beings go off the rails - was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie “Apocalypse Now”.
Conrad himself had undertaken such a river journey as a ship’s captain back in 1889 when he was in his early 30’s and before he took to writing full time. Back then, the Congo Free State, as this area of Africa was known, was a Belgian colony under the personal control of King Leopold II.
Atrocities were commonplace, to the point where the international community finally had to sit up and take notice; in a report published in 1904, over 3 million people were said to have died as a direct result of European intervention in the area.
It has long been argued whether “Heart of Darkness”, which first appeared in 1902, was in any way influential in bringing Leopold’s violent regime to the public’s attention; but whether or not, it remains a searing indictment of human rapacity – and depravity.
Author
Joseph Conrad
Polish-born Joseph Conrad is regarded as a highly influential author, and his works are seen as a precursor to modernist literature. His often tragic insight into the human condition in novels such as Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent is unrivalled by his contemporaries.
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Reviews for Heart of Darkness
Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars
4/5
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Beautiful language but the story is not my cup of tea. For audiobook listeners: the narrator is brilliant.