Narrated by Kenneth Branagh.
Released 23rd November 2010 by Audible Studios.
From the cover:
Prose that demands to be read aloud requires a special kind of narrator. For the Audible Signature Classics edition of Joseph Conrad’s atmospheric masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, we called upon four-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh.Branagh’s performance is riveting because he reads as though he’s telling a ghost story by a campfire, capturing the story’s sense of claustrophobia, while hinting at the storyteller Marlow’s own creeping madness. Heart of Darkness follows Captain Marlow into the colonial Congo where he searches for a mysterious ivory trader, Kurtz, and discovers an evil that will haunt him forever.
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Originally published in 1899, Heart of Darkness is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad. It tells the story of sailor Charles Marlow's adventure on the Congo, during his assignment as a ferry boat captain for a Belgian trading company. It is a tale that he narrates to his crew on a sea voyage some years later, telling it to them in the gloom of the falling night, which gives it the atmospheric feel of a ghost story.
As Marlow recounts the circumstances that take him on an uncharacteristic expedition away from his more usual maritime workplace, the horrendous conditions that face him as he tries to carry out his duties, and the strange assortment of people that he comes across, it becomes clear that he was obsessed with finding out more about a mysterious ivory trader called Kurtz, whose exploits are discussed in hushed tones tinged with fear by everyone he meets... but once he heads into the almost impenetrable forests of Africa to meet the man himself, what he discovers there sends him to the brink of madness.
This is a book that I have tried many times to get into over the years, but despite its relative brevity, something about the tone and intricately descriptive text has always defeated me. However, the nature of the story and its high regard as a work of seminal fiction still made it an intriguing prospect to me, and since the tale is one which is narrated as a pseudo-horror story, it seems a good idea to try once more in an audio format - and this certainly did the trick!
Branagh's narration is an absolute delight to listen to, bringing the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of utter despair alive. Although much of the text is still as impenetrable as the African interior Marlow is attempting to reach, Branagh does make this rather an engaging experience. For me, the very best parts of the tale are the ones which detail Marlow's slow and arduous journey up the Congo, passing through trading posts on his way to finally reach the infamous Kurtz. The way Marlow describes the heat, misery of the native population and grasping nature of the white men that will go to any lengths to make their fortune is very affecting, and there are some deliciously quotable sections of text from Conrad here, such as "The merry dance of death and trade" and "The great demoralisation of the land" that really strike a chord.
Personally, I feel the book misses the mark at the very point as which I thought would be the most thrilling though. The text becomes disjointed and hard to follow from when Marlow actually gets to meet Kurtz, and although this does give the impression that Marlow is succumbing to the madness that claims so many who have travelled to the dark heart of Africa, it did not strike me with horror as I was expecting. I was rather disappointed to be honest, especially since this book has spawned so many more impressive and terrifying works.
One to tick off on the list of classics to be read, and although I cannot say this is one of the best, it's definitely worth the listen for Branagh's excellent performance alone.
Heart of Darkness, the signature performance from Kenneth Branagh is available from Audible now.
About the author:
Polish author Joseph Conrad is considered to be one of the greatest English-language novelists, a remarkable achievement considering English was not his first language. Conrad s literary works often featured a nautical setting, reflecting the influences of his early career in the Merchant Navy, and his depictions of the struggles of the human spirit in a cold, indifferent world are best exemplified in such seminal works as Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, and Typhoon. Regarded as a forerunner of modernist literature, Conrad s writing style and characters have influenced such distinguished writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and George Orwell, among many others. Many of Conrad s novels have been adapted for film, most notably Heart of Darkness, which served as the inspiration and foundation for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
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