I liked the book. Enjoyable and a relatively quick read if you stay on it. I did get distracted for a week.

That said, I do feel like I was missing something. I don't understand the Kurtz situation. Why does everyone care about him so much. The various side characters could be reacting to his efficiency at ivory collection or previous interactions. But why does Marlow care so much? I could understand an interest this man so highly esteemed. The shown interactions between the two is effectively non-existent. We are told Kurtz is so amazing, but not shown anything.

I'm sitting here wondering if a page didn't print in this cheap copy I have.

Or, maybe, that lack of demonstrating anything of interest from Kurtz IS the point. That his ability to extract wealth from Africa for the company was what made everyone view him as great. However, being effective alone is not enough to get a person recognition.

Ultimately, that massive complaint is tied to the payoff of the journey. The journey itself is still a good story and effective in showing how the company doesn't care about the people of Africa while cruelly exploiting them.

I don't get the point of setting the story so that it is Marlow recounting his experience in Africa to his friends. That extra layer doesn't add anything. At least for me. There's no interactivity between Marlow and the listeners. It also means all the paragraphs (99%) start with quote marks which is kind of annoying. That conceit is superfluous.

There is a quote I really liked from the book. "I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself, not for others--what no other man can ever know." I think it does relate to Kurtz. He found himself in his work and he didn't like himself.

I highly recommend the Norton Critical Edition which includes the novel in full as well as several contemporaneous and modern essays that contextualize and add to your understanding of the novel. ( )

This is too short to be difficult. Anything by Conrad is riveting ( )

This is one of those books that is in the culture so deeply that you tend to feel like you've read it already, but reading it remains a different experience altogether. I was impressed by the language and the flow of the story. It really does get under your skin. ( )

So, I get it, I really do. How greed and pride destroyed a man from the inside, out. How even the “savages” had more control over themselves than these men who invaded their land for fame and fortune. But the writing style was a struggle. If Conrad could have just separated the dialogue outI would have given this another star. It did take me a little to get into the story but once I did, I enjoyed it. I definitely sympathized at the end with Marlow. At 72 pages, I’m not mad I read it. ( )