Heart of Darkness was something I felt I had to read given its standing as a well-known story and literary classic. After all, I thought, it's only short so it won't take long to get through if I don't like it. Unfortunately it turned out to be a very slow and boring 128 pages, as the dense formatting of the paragraphs quickly becomes frustrating along with the cold, obtuse style of the writing. The fact that most of the dialogue is mixed into these vast monolithic paragraphs doesn't help either. This would not bother me so much if I was invested in the story and cared about the characters but there just isn't anything to grasp my attention in this way. There is no depth to anyone in the book and the narrative feels very detached from any actual events. I understand it's symbolic but it just feels too imposing and futile to be enjoyable in any way.

The notorious, key figure of Kurtz barely rates as a character and only has a fleeting, unsatisfying appearance before a disappointing anti-climactic ending. The reader is continually assured of how special this man is but there isn't enough real insight into anyone other than Marlowe. In all likelihood this book would improve with a second reading, but I don't think I would want to undertake that anytime soon. Heart of Darkness is a superb technical achievement, but in my opinion falls flat artistically. The book appears at times to be more an exhibition of Joseph Conrad's latent mastery of the English Language than anything else. Of course, it is a highly rated classic by many people but it just doesn't work for me. Normally I would prefer a book over a movie, but in this case I would recommend watching Apocalypse Now as it would be a more entertaining option.