Ride of the Valkyries - Richard Wagner

Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad
Narrator: Kenneth Branagh
Duration: 3 hrs, 51 mins
Publisher: Audible

Story:
Back in high school, senior year I believe, Heart of Darkness was one of the instrument so torture with which the teachers gave us great pain. I hated it. It's nothing that I'm interested in. The writing is pompous, but I don't find it beautiful. The narrative is racist, as it would be, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I'm going to be entirely truthful here and say that I don't get this story. In class, we sat and analyzed it. I even remember some of our analyses, but, still, the story has little meaning to me. I just can't relate to it in any way.

Performance:
If you have to read Heart of Darkness, I heartily recommend letting Kenneth Branagh read it to you. Actually, this is not the first time I have listened to this book. In high school, I read it out loud to myself, because that was the only way I could make the page-long sentences resolve into meaning for me at the time. While I am one of the best narrators ever, I probably preferred Branagh.

I mean, his voice is amazing! The editing of this audiobook was unfortunately not perfect. They didn't do a great job with the breathing, but that's pretty easy to tune out. More disconcerting were the constant changes in volume. I would realize that Branagh had gotten very quiet and would be thinking about turning up the volume when suddenly Bam! it would be all extra loud. Do not turn up the volume or it will be REALLY loud. You have been warned.

Rating: 2/5