Text A
- How would you describe this voice?
- To what extent does it help us understand Heart of Darkness?
- What does this introduction to Lord Jim say about Conrad’s preoccupations, concerns, and style?
The voice of the this passage begins with a fairly frustrating tone as the author struggles to understand how some reviewers felt the need to point out the credibility of the novel and thus failed to have a more creative vision of the novel. However, as the text proceeds, the tone of the author alters to be more reflective as he explains the formation of Heart of Darkness.
The text helps us to understand how the Heart of Darkness is a “free and wandering tale,” in which the author has intended to leave plenty of room for his readers’ to come up with their own interpretations as they follow the “simple and sensitive character,” that Conrad has created. The novel that Conrad has wrote is very much reflective of how it was created. In the sense that the event (pilgrim ship episode) was the only thought that Conrad initially had for this story and the rest that followed was not planned.
It is the fact that men talked “all the time” and “other men to listen for so long,” that the author explained is what made the novel in fact “interesting.” The text shows how the author came to the revelation that it is the “listeners’ endurance” that reasons why this novel is worth reading and more importantly writing in the first place.
