I’ve started to read heart of darkness recently, and frankly, it has been quite a struggle.
At first, I thought this book will be my cup of tea, I love history and also reading the classics, so a book criticizing colonialism in Congo sounded intriguing to say the least. But I already read the first 60 pages of the book, and it has been so difficult to follow.
The book is filled with archaic words, and there are so many metaphors. It’s like the author tried writing the book as complex as possible. I sometimes have to reread entire paragraphs just to understand what is happening and it’s quite frustrating.
I’ll admit that I’m not a native speaker, but I consider my level of English to be quite good and I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to read this book. I read war and peace and the count of monto cristo in English and they were much more interesting and easier to follow.
I saw some negative reviews about the book but I assumed they were mostly about the patronising and racist nature of the book, I didn’t think the writing would be so senseless.
Should I keep pushing on or just give up on the book? Is it worth finishing it?
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Yes. Stick with it.
I read it but absorbed none of it.
I was underwhelmed by it, but I am glad I pushed through and finished it. I know at least one of the other commenters said to take it slow, but I disagree. I would skim difficult passages rather than quit.
Well, it’s an 1899 novel and written in a pretty old style… but you say you love reading the classics, so I don’t think it should give you all that much trouble? As I recall it’s not really any more complex or archaic then other works of the period, like Ambrose Bierce or Kate Chopin or E.M. Forster.
Conrad has a bit of a unique style though. Maybe it’s just one of those cases where a particular writer’s style just happens to be tricky for you? I think that’s something that just happens from time to time.
Push through. Your mind will adapt to the language. It is definitely a challenge. But my god it is a great book by the end. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks.
As a native English speaker with high expertise in English, that shit was hard. It took me 3.5 attempts to finish it even though it’s less than 100 pages. But that’s the point. It’s an experience I’ve never had in a book. It was hard at the start, but eventually the strange, dense language became a blur, I was beginning to see the imagery between the words, and a movie started playing in my head. I was on the river with Marlow, and I experienced this otherworldly continent. For lack of a better metaphor, I unearthed the heart of darkness within me. The shocking, bizarre acts that shocked me at the beginning of the story were part and parcel by the end. Why would a fleet ship bombard the coastline at random? Just go there and you’ll understand. My morals had changed alongside Marlow’s.
If you can stick with it, pick it up after dropping it out of confusion, and get through the end, you’ll experience it. Maybe. You’ll be a better reader at the least. It’s fucking hard.
I was forced to read that in high school and hated it.
I’ll admit that I’m not a native speaker…
Interestingly, Conrad’s native language was Polish. His writing was influenced by high level of literacy in Polish followed by reaching the same level in English. It’s style is complex but fascinating for that reason.
It’s also the style of the times, a transition from 19th century to 20th. Very detailed description.
He’s a distant ancestor so I took a great interest in him.
Never go past a word that you don’t know because when you do the meaning of the sentence/paragraph/chapter/book is lost. I enjoyed “Heart of Darkness” but until we discussed it in class I hadn’t realized the subtleties that I’d missed. We were all in the same boat on that. Read a Cliff’s Notes or an analysis on Goodreads or wherever at some point.
Hot take: Joseph Conrad’s English wasn’t as good as thought it was.
My first inclination is that if you’ve given the novel a fair shake and it’s not working for you, then move on.
But isn’t Heart of Darkness on average like…75-ish pages? If you’ve already read 60 then I feel like you’re almost done, and in this case, might as well just finish it and decide for yourself.
It definitely was for me
It is dense.
I personally also class The Heart of Darkness as one of those classics which benefit from being a bit older reading them. I don’t know how old you are. It may not be relevant. I just engaged with the story better in my 30’s or 40’s. I still hate the ending, I can’t imagine a scenario where I wouldn’t hate the ending. But I appreciate the first 75% more now.
Yes it is. Conrad himself admitted to making it challenging to read so it feels like the reader is fighting through the jungle along with Marlow. It was challenging even by the standards of the time it was written in.
Also please don’t listen to people telling you to put a book down if it doesn’t click with you right away. That’s fine advice for a newer book that you’re only reading for pure entertainment, but part of the benefit of reading classics or more literary works is to sharpen your mind and attention span.
I wish my teachers had told me this. It was so torturous to get through, I thought that UNICEF would have to come in and investigate the school.
It is incredibly rich textually and wonderfully well constructed and just as paradise lost was an inescapable framework for the romantics, heart of darkness was an inescapable framework for the late modernists and postmodernists ford maddox ford writes about this very evocatively. Yes it isnt a breezy read
It’s over a hundred years old, so the language, conventions, and formatting are over a hundred years old. Not only are some words archaic, but some word usages are archaic – sentence 2 of the whole book says “The flood had made,” where made means to “rise.” I had to look that up as a native English speaker, because my first thought was, “The flood made what, exactly?” No one uses “make” as “rise” anymore.
If you’re not enjoying it, I would skip it, or dedicate yourself to making notes in the margins about more complicated word use. The point it’s making was revolutionary and fair for its day (not many people sympathized with Africa and hated colonialism in 1899), but better and more concise works on the same subject have come up in the time since. You’ll have to make that decision on your own.