One of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

From Amazon.co.uk:

Heart of Darkness has been considered for most of this century as a literary classic, and also as a powerful indictment of the evils of imperialism. It reflects the savage repressions carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time. Conrad's narrator encounters at the end of the story a man named Kurtz, dying, insane, and guilty of unspeakable atrocities. First appearing as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899, it was soon after published as a novella, in 1902 in the volume Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book, but it almost certainly wasn't what I got. I guess I was expecting Kurtz to play a larger role in the narrative than he does. He affects so many characters profoundly that I was expecting to be more affected myself. Instead, Kutz's 'on screen' time is limited and even then Marlowe seems to miss important parts when he recounts the story. Still, the mood Conrad creates is great - very hallucinatory and I liked the 'narrator within a narration' device. The book comes with a very interesting intro/forward, which give great context for the book and the time when it was written. I particularly liked the argument/discussion of whether this book represent Africa (or the anglo saxon view of Africa) or not.

This book is now off to tqd as part of the VBBOZ! It will be posted later today along with the Sittaford Mystery.

Thanks KLL! A "1001" book I haven't read (I've got 800+ to go... meep...).

I have tried to read this previously, but it was one of those annoying copies with underlinings and comments, and I just couldn't do it. Hopefully better luck with this more pristine copy!

Left on the fence post at the front.

Happy hunting/reading!