Heart of Darkness

Conrad's heavily atmospheric story of greed and evil is perfectly suited to audio performance since it is Marlow's voice that relates the horror of the journey down the Congo River. Richard Thomas's reading is on an even level throughout the telling, but the timbre of his voice of his voice may be too slight to lead listeners into Conrad's terrifying wilderness. Thomas's performance does not stand up well when compared to other productions. B.V. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


In HEART OF DARKNESS, Marlow, the narrator, undertakes both an outer and an inner journey. The outer journey takes him into the heart of Africa, where he encounters representatives of every colonial stripe. Performing the work instead of simply reading it, Scott Brick emphasizes this aspect of Conrad's classic, clearly conveying class differences and a range of foreign accents, as well as pidgin. Conrad's prose is dense and complex, but Brick delivers it smoothly and gracefully. However, Marlow's inner journey--during which he confronts the mysterious Mr. Kurtz--remains too distant and intellectualized to fully capture the emotional charge of the moment. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine