
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh
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Narrated by:
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Kenneth Branagh
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By:
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Joseph Conrad
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.
With this landmark work, Conrad is credited with bringing the novel into the twentieth century; we think Branagh brings it into the twenty-first.
Stay tuned for more one-of-a-kind performances from actors David Hyde Pierce, Leelee Sobieski, Tim Curry, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.
Listen to more Audible Signature Classics.
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Editorial reviews
"The horror! The horror!" In this brooding and justly celebrated novella of 1902, seaman Charles Marlow is cruising quietly down the Thames at dusk with some friends. As night begins to fall, he tells them of his harrowing journey down an African river in search of the unscrupulous and near-legendary ivory trader named Kurtz, a quest deep into inky spiritual and symbolic darkness. Acclaimed Irish actor/director Kenneth Branagh impersonates Marlow in this recording. Admirably, while fully playing the drama, he never goes overboard. He plays the tale for the great yarn that it is. But had he taken more cognizance of its trajectory and subtleties, he would have made the listening experience far richer than he has.
Critic reviews
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The book has been criticized for portraying Africans as sub-human, and it is true that Conrad (and hence Branagh) gives almost no voice to the native population, but I find in Heart of Darkness less racist condescension towards the Africans and more moral outrage towards their European colonial exploiters.
The nearly four-hour audiobook, during which Marlow recounts his journey into the Congo to find the "genius" trading agent Kurtz, quickly caught me and carried me inexorably towards "The horror! The horror!" and its haunting aftermath. It left me stunned and grimly impressed (though somehow not depressed) by its disturbing depiction of the raping of Africa by colonial powers like Belgium (taking countless tons of ivory in exchange for worthless glass beads and shabby fabrics, imposing incomprehensible laws onto the native peoples and brutally punishing them for the slightest infractions, and so on), and by its timely application to the developed world's current exploitation of the Congo ("conflict minerals") and of Africa in general (diamonds, oil and other resources). But the greatness of the novella lies in its transcending specific examples like Africa and universalizing the heart of darkness to include England in the time of the Romans and all human beings in any time, exposing the heart of darkness in all of us.
The (Beautiful and Appalling) Horror!
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Great Performance
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Lovely!
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What did you love best about Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh?
Kenneth Branagh's performance is amazing. I could listen to the man read the proverbial phone book, but he did more than simply read, he inhabited the narrator character who is slowly going insane.What other book might you compare Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh to and why?
It is a classic unreliable narrator story, and has influenced many succeeding works. In the ghost story vein, it reminds me a bit of Poe.Which scene was your favorite?
It is hard to pick out one in particular, but as they go deeper in, the book (and the performance) just keeps getting better.If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Well, clearly this book inspired Apocalpse Now, but I would call it An Imperialist Ghost Story.Any additional comments?
I read this book in college about 30 years ago, but this performance gave a whole new dimension to the book. Frankly, it was a difficult book for me to focus on then, but this experience was riveting.The best way to experience a chilling classic
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*SIR* Kenneth Branagh reading Conrad? Yes.
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Mesmerizing
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Branagh
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Didn’t love it.
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If you could sum up Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh in three words, what would they be?
Complex, gorgeous writingWhat did you like best about this story?
writing and the narratorWhat about Kenneth Branagh’s performance did you like?
He was amazing! I especially liked how he seemed out of breath at the most horrific of passages.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yesAny additional comments?
This is an audio you need to listen to several times, there is so much to it.The most elegant of writers.
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Brilliant Literature Performed Brilliantly
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