Heart of Darkness
- 134
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
- Film 1979 +2
- On screen
- 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
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Our view
Conrad packs a great deal into a short novella: a steamer journey into the African interior that doubles as an indictment of European colonialism. Some readers are jarred by language and a picture of Africans that belong to 1899; others find more sympathy in Marlow’s account than the surface suggests. Dark for its length, it is a book some intend to read again.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad, in which sailor Charles Marlow tells the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonialism in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 3 times — from 1979 to 2001.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.7 across 1,321 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 90% of the weight and the score stays at 6.8 — the Classics average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.2 | 138 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 6.7 | 1.2K | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is Heart of Darkness?
It has 134 pages — shorter than 90% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 6.6 and 7.2, closest to this book.
