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    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
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    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
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    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
    Ebook375 pages6 hours

    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

    By Joseph Conrad and A. Michael Matin

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction, by Joseph Conrad, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
    * New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
    * Biographies of the authors
    * Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
    * Footnotes and endnotes
    * Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
    * Comments by other famous authors
    * Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
    * Bibliographies for further reading
    * Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
    All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.   One of the most haunting stories ever written, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo at the height of European colonialism. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a famously idealistic and able man stationed farther along the river. What he finally discovers, however, is a horror beyond imagining. Heart of Darkness is widely regarded as a masterpiece for its vivid study of human nature and the greed and ruthlessness of imperialism.
    This collection also includes three of Conrad’s finest short stories: “Youth,” the author’s largely autobiographical tale of a young man’s ill-fated sea voyage, in which Marlow makes his first appearance, “The Secret Sharer,” and “Amy Forster.”   Features a map of the Congo Free State.   A. Michael Matin is a professor in the English Department of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He has published articles on various twentieth-century British and postcolonial writers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2009
    ISBN9781411432307
    Unavailable
    Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
    Author

    Joseph Conrad

    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) und Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) gehören zu den bedeutendsten Erzählern der modernen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. In seinen vielschichtigen, auch vieldeutigen Romanen und Erzählungen knüpfte Conrad oft an die Erfahrungen seiner Seemannsjahre an. Die Romane von Ford Madox Ford haben an Wertschätzung in den letzten Jahrzehnten ständig zugenommen und gelten heute ebenfalls als Klassiker; er arbeitete viel und eng mit Joseph Conrad zusammen, mit dem er mehrere Bücher verfasste.

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    Reviews for Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

    3.5/5

    5,041 ratings138 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A little adventure on a tramp steamer through the Congo.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written but a tad over-rated
    • 5/5
      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.

      Conrad uses a twin layer of narratives in order to achieve the needed objectivity that he felt required to place the reader at varying distances from the horror that Kurtz cried out at the end. The opening narrator is unnamed, possibly Conrad himself, who sets the stage by placing the reader at a safe distance from the evils which lay squarely ahead. Through this narrator we get a bird'e eyes view of the true narrator Marlow, who is depicted as somehow different from the four other men on the deck of the Nellie. This difference in physical attributes slowly increases to concomitant differences in perspective, attitude, and general authorial reliability. Marlow is a deeply flawed man who has the disadvantage of viewing the unfolding events from the prejudiced eyes of a white colonial civil servant who is sure that the blacks in Africa are little different from his preconceived notion of uncivilized cannibals. Further, Marlow makes numerous errors of judgment along the way, many of them seemingly insignificant, yet the totality of the reader's perspective is twisted through the equally twisted lens of an unreliable narrator. Conrad's purpose in melding the reader to a flawed narrator was to insure that the reader could never trust what he reads, thereby increasing his sense of unease in that the sense of safety that Marlow feels, first on the deck of the Nellie, and later in the jungle itself, is as flimsy as the signposts that guide Marlow toward his goal.

      The goal is Kurtz, a trader who set out to civilize the blacks into accepting a white version of civilization, but Marlow finds out that the reverse happened. The true horror that Kurtz sees is the horror that all would be conquerors find when they discover that the philosophy of racial supremacy which led them into conflict with a people whom they deemed unworthy is shown to be built on straw. Kurtz knows that the only difference between his brutal acts toward the natives and their own similar atrocities toward themselves is no difference at all. As corrupt as Kurtz must have been, in his closing cry of horror, he finds a small measure of redemption and closure. Marlow sees what Kurtz saw, knew what Kurtz did, and heard up close and personal Kurtz's swan song of pain, but Marlow learned nothing of lasting value. All he could think of was to maintain the image of the Kurtz that was: "I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more." The journey that Kurtz took was a horror only because he became what he sought. The journey that Marlow took became a horror only because he learned nothing from what he sought. As you and I read HEART OF DARKNESS, we must decide which journey has the more meaningful signposts.
    • 4/5
      Lush language is the key differentiator of this remarkable polemic against atrocity. The framed narrative distances the author from the views expressed so it is hard to know whether Conrad shared the racism and sexism of Marlow, his protagonist. Taken at face value, the account of white colonists going to collect ivory from a white manager who has ruthlessly suppressed his black suppliers endorses white supremacy but not the ill-treatment of the lesser beings. Marlow objects to Kurtz's abuse of the 'savages' in much the same way that the English of the time protected dogs and horses.
    • 4/5
      Amazingly, I'm reading this for the first time in my 40's. But I can't imagine I would have understood it very well when I was younger. Mr. Conrad makes ample use of Africa as a symbol of darkness but the real darkness doesn't lie in the external world. It has always lain in the depths of the human soul. It doesn't take living in a savage land to find oneself unmoored from goodness and right. Anytime external restraints are lifted is the time when man must grapple with his own soul and what he can do and what he will do. Mr. Conrad's capturing of that truth and all the horror of that truth is masterful.
    • 1/5
      Didn't like it the first time. Didn't like it the second time.
    • 3/5
      If I hadn't seen "Apocalypse Now" I might have absorbed this book differently. For me, the "stream of thought" style of narration by Marlow was a little too bumpy to read. I can appreciate that it was modern and adventurous writing for its time and might even be considered as "literary" by some, but I have enjoyed other Conrad offerings better.
    • 3/5
      I was expecting a little more out of this. Overall, I felt it was a little lackluster. I needed more meat to the story, it lacked...... something that I can't quite verbalize. Heart of Darkness describes one captain's journey up the Congo River into the "heart of Africa." It's dark, brooding, and ominous; nothing goes according to plan. The narrator upon arriving at his African destination; has a strange fascination with a man named Kurtz, an English brute with odd ways who is no longer in control of all his faculties. Marlow, the captain, is in awe at the darkness that lurks in the jungle and in men's hearts. Sigh. I'm not doing a very good job describing it because I couldn't really get into it.
    • 5/5
      This book is so very well written that many aspects of it seem to me to verge on perfection. It springs to mind a hundred times in discussing writing craft, in discussing what a story should do, how framing can work, or indeed, when contemplating John Gardner's theory that novellas at their best have a "glassy perfection". This book manages to be an experience as well as a literary work, and the effect of its final pages is profound, worthwhile, and haunting.
    • 4/5
      One of the finest novels of the twentieth century, "Heart of Darkness" is a moody masterpiece following a man's journey down the Congo in search of a Captain Kurtz. I saw the loose film adaptation "Apocalypse Now" before reading "Heart of Darkness" and feared seeing "Apocalypse Now" would detrimentally affect my reading experience. I need not have worried as the two are different enough to ensure the Congo's Kurtz was still full of surprises.
    • 5/5
      Strange and excellent. Conrad's use of the language is masterful. Full of incredible symbolism, and a very powerful anti-colonial screed.
    • 2/5
      This was pretty boring. The reader was fantastic but I just never could get into the story. Not my cup of tea.
    • 4/5
      The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much - Heart of Darkness

      This is a book that is difficult to rate. On the one hand, it is very hard to read. The perspective of the book is a person listening to another person telling the story, which means that almost all paragraphs are in quotes, which can and will get confusing if the narrator starts quoting people, and gets worse once he starts quoting people who are quoting people themselves. Add to that the slightly chaotic narration, the long sentences and paragraphs, and an almost complete lack of chapters (the book is structured into only 3 chapters), and then add some jumps in causality in the narration for good measure, and you have a recipe for headaches.

      On the other hand, the book has a good story. It has no clear antagonist, all characters except for the narrator are in one way or another unlikeable idiots, brutal savages (and I am talking about the white people, not the natives). It is hard to like any of them, and, strangely, the character who is probably the worst of the lot was the one I liked best, just because he was honest about his actions and did not try to hide behind concepts like "bringing the civilization to these people". He was brutal, yes. He was (probably) racist, yes. But they all are. He seems to show an awareness of his actions, of the wrongness of it, in the end, while all the others remain focussed on their personal political and material gain.

      I am not a big fan of books that are considered "classics". They usually do not interest me, and being forced to read them by your teachers will probably not improve your view of the books. I am not sure if I liked this book, and that in itself is an achievement on the part of this book: I am unable to give it a personal rating compared to my other books, because it is so different.

      There are many people who have liked the book. There are many who have hated it. I cannot recommend it, because I know that many people will not like it. Some would say that these people "don't get it", but that would be wrong as well. You need a special interest in the topics of the book, or a special connection to the book itself, to properly enjoy it. But I also would not discourage anyone to read it either.

      It is part of the public domain, so it is free. If you are interested, start reading it. You can still shout "this is bullsh*t" and drop it at any point.
    • 5/5
      Heart of Darkness is a tale of a seaman, Marlow, who pilots a boat up the Congo River around the turn of the 20th Century. His mission is to make contact with an ivory trader named Kurtz on behalf of their mutual employer. Kurtz is a mysterious fellow who not only has a unique relationship with the nationals, but also has an uncanny ability to provide ivory for the company. As Marlow's journey progresses, he becomes more and more eager to meet Kurtz, all the while becoming more and more disgusted with his fellow expatriates. It's a dark and dreary tale, but so very well written. As a good Lutheran, I had to admire Mr. Conrad's ability to paint such a realistic of human sin. The pity is, he also seems to have no concept of or use for forgiveness and the ability of God to bring about good even amongst us petty, nasty humans. I'm tempted to hang onto this book for its craftsmanship, but I don't know if I'd ever care to delve into Mr. Conrad's world again.--J.
    • 3/5
      I read this book in high school and appreciated it, but made no personal connection. Interesting story, but no plans to pick it up ever again.
    • 4/5
      Conrad's conflicts always involve the sea or a river in some way. He pits modern man with his vices/virtues against the primitive and always finds him lacking. Heroes are brought low and jerks become redeemed. Always a good read and a gifted writer.
    • 3/5
      Conrad paints a vivid picture of the heart of darkness which is the mind of man.
    • 5/5
      This isn't a book that anyone reads for fun. Its not exactly a lighthearted meditation on the nature of empire, nor is the writing a breeze to slog through. Although technically a "novella," its also a solid work of literature and has loads of symbolism and multiple layers of meaning sandwiched into the story which the reader needs to work to unravel. That said, this is a classic--its a dark and brooding indictment of the futility of empire. Over one hundred years after its original publication, this book continues to provoke debates over its major themes, namely, the nature and logic of the British empire in Africa. Critics charge that this is a fundamentally racist novel and there are plenty of cringe-inducing racial comments over the savagery of the black Africans that Marlow encounters on his trip up the Congo River. We're also made to understand that these same tribes are so savage that they are quite literally beyond the redemptive power of Western [and white and male] civilization. Indeed, Conrad's condemnation of imperial enterprises stems less from the effects of the empire of black Africans and more from the damages it inflicts on the white people caught up in its ruthless expansion. Conrad links the expansion of the empire to madness and we see it most clearly in the character of Kurtz, but also in the inefficiencies, the lack of understanding of the jungle, the callousness with which the colonizers treat the natives, and their pursuit of precious ivory at any cost. The metaphor of darkness surrounds every aspect of this book--the natives are dark, the jungle is dark, the Inner Station is dark. The hearts of the colonizers are also dark, but the most provocative part of this book comes from Conrad's suggestion that the heart of darkness, the capacity for evil, resides deep inside each and everyone of us and we should feel compelled to examine the ways that we personally participate in our own journeys into modern day hearts of darkness.
    • 1/5
      When I read Lord Jim a little over a year ago, I had a very difficult time connecting with it. But given that Joseph Conrad is generally considered to be one of the greatest novelists ever—and in any language (never mind that English was his third language!) — I resolved that the fault was mine, that the shortcoming was mine, and that I’d have to try again with at least one other of his works.

      I just did — with Heart of Darkness. And came away from it no more enthralled than I did with Lord Jim. Moreover, I read it under almost ideal circumstances — i.e., without notable distractions.

      The literary powers that be think the world of Joseph Conrad. Many of those same literary lights think the world of Henry James. I’m ashamed to say that I fail to see the merit in either of them—and that, if I never read another thing by either writer, I won’t consider myself shortchanged.

      I just don’t get it. And if I’ve given this work only one star, that single star is more of a reflection on my inability to see the light than of Joseph Conrad’s ability to write a story. I can only conclude that I’m a one-star reader and reviewer — and ask Joseph Conrad’s ghost to forgive me.

      RRB
      9/14/13
      Brooklyn, NY

    • 3/5
      Interesting novel. Great prose. But the book didn't really do much for me. It's very short but kind of difficult to maintain the concentration it takes to process what is being said. Or at least so I found it, in my case. When I was able to maintain that concentration, the story was interesting enough. I like exploring and tribal life and the jungle. But I suppose the book wasn't long enough for me to really invest in it all that much. Oh well. Another one off the list.
    • 4/5
      Wow - what a book. It's short - 117 pages, and I wanted it to be longer. I was savoring every page. The descriptions were amazing.I was a little worried after reading 7-8 pages, it was very bleh. But as soon as Marlow started to get into his story, it was wonderful.This story is told to the narrator, who is on a boat with Marlow, sitting on the Thames, waiting for the tide to turn. As they are waiting, Marlow tells his story about going up the Congo River, and his meeting with Kurtz, an agent of the company, renowned for finding so much ivory.I had to read aloud this passage when I came across it:He was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist.And this short book is filled with this! Turn the page, and it is filled with a description of the river, It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.This book is more about the narrative and the symbolism than the story. It starts out with Marlow musing about how the Romans found England to be when they first arrived - dark and uncivilized. And then segues into his trip up the Congo. And ends with him visiting Kurtz' fiance.I didn't realize at first that Apocalypse Now was based on Heart of Darkness. I first saw that movie when I was 16, and I sat through it twice in the movie theatre, and that movie was about 2.5 hours long! In reading this, it's obvious Kurtz is the same. They talk about his method "being unsound" and his last words were, "the horror, the horror." The Dennis Hopper character is the same in the book too. It was sometimes hard to not have Marlon Brando and Dennis Hopper in my head.Overall, I give it 4 stars - 1/2 star off for slow start and slow ending, and 1/2 star off for a little less story than I would like.
    • 3/5
      This book is racist and sexist, but it's extremely interesting to think about.I could write a lot about it, but I'm reading it for class and have done plenty of that. Just wanted to record that I've read it recently.
    • 4/5
      The copy I read had a fantastic introduction, and contained footnotes referring to Conrad's own trip to the Congo, showing how much of this is autobiographical. I would recommend this version to anyone who, like me, read it own a whim with no real knowledge of how influential this writing was at the time.In fact, my fictional reading of this subject is quite expansive, but my factual knowledge is poor. Reading this copy enabled me to be whisked away on a story and yet pad out my limited knowledge.Marlowe is a sympathetic character, born of his time and yet forward-thinking, as is, I guess, Conrad. The images of unexplored Africa as a blank area on maps is exciting, and goes some way to explaining the intrepidation and fear that led these very male explorers to give the impressions that they did of such a peaceful, country.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      "Mr Kurtz, he dead!" This novel is full of enticing and harrowing sentences like that. I found the novel dark and brutal, and Conrad's prose style led me along as if through the dense foliage of the Congo. Only when I finished the book did I start to wonder about everything that it said; whilst reading I was taken in by the mesmeric quality of some of the description. Reading 'Heart of Darkness' was not an enjoyable experience, but it was a disturbing one, which is something far rarer.
    • 4/5
      Despite being a mere 100 pages long, parts of this book were as frustrating to slog through as the African jungle. Nevertheless, I'm glad I made it to through the wilderness to the palpable "horror" at the end. A book so deliciously overwrought with symbolism, I almost wish I had to write a paper on it.
    • 2/5
      This book definitely put forth some very interesting notions, and Conrad clearly can deftly weave his words and create well-crafted sentences. But I found some parts... a lot of parts, something of a chore to read, and despite my careful reading, I still ended up with only a rough sketch of what I supposed it was about. Perhaps that's what's the charm, perhaps I have a limited understanding, I don't know. Perhaps I should pick this back up in a few years and see if it clicks for me then, but for the moment, I can't hold a very high opinion of this novella and can only thank Conrad for making it 100 pages.
    • 4/5
      The fiction, and the non-fiction. The prose are not for the unexperienced reader. Part of this great story explains of the ills of colonialism at the turn of the century. It posits probably, an accurate account of what one may have seen on the ground and "up country" at that time. Conrad certainly opens the pages of man's baseness, his sordidness. I eagerly anticipate reading his other works.
    • 2/5
      I read this book in conjunction with the film, Apocalypse Now, in twelfth grade. The teacher said that it would be "the hardest book we ever read". I would like to read this book again because I feel like I really missed something the first time.
    • 5/5
      A life changing book for those with angst. In my top 5.
    • 5/5
      I read this back in highschool, given as an assignment by a rather awesome teacher. I think that it tends to be a rather misunderstood book and people are thrown off by Conrad's ,let's say lack, of writing skills so that they do not get to the message of what "the horror" really is.