Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary (Penguin Classics)
by Joseph Conrad
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph ConradEditor: Owen Knowles
Introduction: Owen Knowles
Editor: Robert Hampson
Editor: J. H. Stape
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-25
ISBN: 0141441674
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: Literature as Philosophical Anthropology
Summary: 5 Stars
Conrad's novella contains an almost endless fount of symbolic allusions. One of the most important series of allusions occurs early (in the frame narrative) and ties the symbolism of darkness, finitude, the mystery of the labyrinth and death to the images of the lunar cycle, the tide, yarn and narrative.
"The yarns of seaman have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted) and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel, but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine" (6).
Conrad appears to be indicating that the seaman is closer to the "state of nature" because of his intimate relationship with the primal cycle of the tide (eternal recurrence). Melville certainly indicates as much in Moby-Dick. The natural rhythm of the sea forces the seaman into greater harmony with nature, thus enabling him to see more clearly the natural state of man--helping him to see into the darkness. The allusion to natural cycles at this point interestingly connects with the later mention of "unspeakable rites" performed for Kurtz by the natives (61), for religious rituals are very often tied to the cycle of the moon. For example, Easter is always on the first Sunday following the first full moon of the vernal equinox. The moon represents death and rebirth because it is born, grows, declines and dies, only to be reborn. Each day the moon is killed by the sun, the light; but the light of the sun only temporarily illuminates the darkness, i.e. darkness (ignorance) is the more natural state. Mythologically the animal associated with the sun is the lion, whose golden face resembles the sun; the animal associated with the moon is the bull, whose horns represent the horns of the moon. Thus we have the many references to the sacrifice of the bull in almost all "primitive" religions, imitating the death of the moon. The Minotaur (bull-man) is conspicuously brought to mind at the beginning of Plato's Phaedo (58a9-b3) in relation to Socrates, death and sacrifice. The lion's roar scatters the horned beasts of the prairie, imitating the power of the sun's light to scatter darkness.
In this passage Conrad is metaphorically indicating by means of symbolic images and conceptual allusion that some things are only visible at night, in the dark as it were. Furthermore, these things can have a higher degree of reality than those made visible in the sunlight. The heart of things is shrouded in darkness. Might Conrad's account of light enveloped in darkness be a dramatic image of something like Socratic knowledge of ignorance? The entire tale can be read as a story of how nature is hidden in the deep recesses of the political community (civilization). But the story is told in Schopenhauerian and Nietzschean rather than Platonic language. We have an allegory of the recognition of the mystery of existence as it manifests itself within the hierarchy of human souls or psyches. Of course in modernity there is not much of a hierarchy, and the souls of Conrad's Westerners all seem to be equally base. The closest thing we have in Conrad's tale to a philosopher is Marlow (we don't know enough about the frame narrator to say one way or the other, i.e. with him we are left in the dark), who is really more of a "neutral" observer. Marlow's soul lacks eros or the "love of victory" necessary to pursue the never-ending quest for self-knowledge; however, Marlow clearly represents the harmonization of light and dark. Even so, we must look beyond Marlow--to his imitation of the Buddha--to see that knowledge of ignorance is the actualization of the cosmic state of nature in the soul of man, which explains the soteric effects of self-knowledge and does so in way that also explains how these soteric effects transcend the "local" soteriology necessary to political community; i.e. it refers us to the necessity of religion to community politically and explains the tension between the soteric effects of self-knowledge in the elevated individual's soul in contrast with the soteriological needs of nonphilosophic souls. There are those unable to comprehend, unable to accept the truth into their soul without it destroying them. Thus Kurtz, even though he is exceptional (to borrow a Nietzschean term), is not a philosopher--he had "no restraint" (63). The community must conceal the truth about darkness by shining a man-made light on it (the myth of cultural progress out of darkness into the light), you might say. Direct contact with the "light of truth" would destroy the community (knowledge is dangerous); for that light also contains within it the truth about cosmic darkness (staring directly into the light of the sun causes blindness or reabsorption into darkness). Plato's Good is not good for everyone, as Plato and especially Socrates knew all too well. Thus Conrad has Marlow appear at the beginning and the end as the Buddha (the enlightened and definitely restrained one), having been to the East, removed from Western society and returned as the neutral observer (7, 96). When considered as a whole by the discerning reader the form of the story dramatically images a path to the state of nature in the dark recesses of the psyche. The person with the capacity for such levels of discernment is likely to experience this psychological journey as an ascent (i.e. a transcendence of the narrow and bodily concerns of the political community via asceticism), out of the cave, to the light of nature through contemplation; whereas the person who lacks intellectual capacities in combination with inborn asceticism experiences the path to nature (knowledge of ignorance or light enveloped by darkness) as a descent or a return to savagery.
This interpretation may now be densely summarized in the following terms. The explanation of Conrad's quasi-religious imagery of the transformation of the civilized man to the uncivilized brute in the person of Kurtz fits like a mask of resignation and decline over the face of Western civilization. Resignation is personified by Marlow the neutral observer who is powerless to effect a reversal or even stop the decline of a single individual in the person of Kurtz. Thus Marlow's knowledge can save him but not his culture. "Solitude is the involution of the forces of nature, as these forces have fulfilled their purpose and returned to the void; it is the power of consciousness turning back upon itself" (Yogasutra 4.34). This is why Conrad repeatedly invokes the image of a "whited sepulcher" as a reflection of the modern West.
Summary of Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary (Penguin Classics)
Penguin inaugurates a series of revised editions of Conrad's finest works, with new introductionsExploring the workings of consciousness as well as the grim realities of imperialism, Heart of Darkness tells of Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, who journeys into the heart of the African continent to discover how the enigmatic Kurtz has gained power over the local people.
Literature Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Reading Queue 1900-1909
The Sacred Fountby Henry James
ReadHowYouWant; Published: 2007-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.49
Sister Carrie (Barnes & Noble Classics)by Theodore Dreiser
Barnes & Noble Classics; Published: 2005-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Lord Jim: A Tale (Penguin Classics)by Joseph Conrad
Penguin Classics; Published: 2007-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.35
Price in other shops:
The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Editionby Upton Sinclair
See Sharp Press; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.54
Price in other shops:
Nostromo (Barnes & Noble Classics)by Joseph Conrad
Barnes & Noble Classics; Published: 2004-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
The Wings of the Dove (Penguin Classics)by Henry James
Penguin Classics; Published: 2008-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (Everyman's Library)by Thomas Mann
Everyman's Library; Published: 1994-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.91
Price in other shops:
Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary (Penguin Classics)by Joseph Conrad
Penguin Classics; Published: 2007-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
The Ambassadors (Oxford World's Classics)by Henry James
Oxford University Press; Published: 2008-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.41
Price in other shops:
The Golden Bowl (Penguin Modern Classics)by Henry James
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 2001-01-18; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Their Eyes Were Watching Godby Zora Neale Hurston
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics)by James Joyce
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.19
Price in other shops:
Things Fall Apart: A Novelby Chinua Achebe
Anchor; Published: 1994-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.69
Price in other shops:
Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare)by William Shakespeare
Washington Square Press; Published: 2003-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.17
Price in other shops:
On Liberty (HPC Classics Series)by John Stuart Mill
Hackett Pub Co Inc; Published: 1978-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.36
Price in other shops:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Signet Classics)by Frederick Douglass
Signet Classics; Published: 2005-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.40
Price in other shops:
Copenhagenby Michael Frayn
Anchor; Published: 2000-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
To the Lighthouseby Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty (Introduction)
Harvest Books; Published: 1989-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Medea and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)by Euripides
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.08
Price in other shops:
Evasionby Crimethinc.
CrimethInc.; Published: 2001-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95