This book. I have read this book a total of three times in my life, all within the past four years. Each time it is such a struggle because it is incredibly well-written, but so very racist. However, each time I read it, short as it is, I tend to pick up something I missed the previous time. Also, the previous times I did read this book, it was required reading for school. I have mentioned before that reading a book again when it is not required of you has a different feel to it, and I still think that is very true.

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a short novel, presented as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's job as an ivory transporter down in the Congo river in Central Africa. During this commercial work, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz, an Ivory-procurement agent, a man of established notoriety among the natives and the European colonies.  

The novel portrays how colonialism and racism made imperialism possible, and because is it a narrative, these themes are more shocking to the reader. I honestly think that this book is best read alongside Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, just to get another perspective of such a horrific them (who knows, maybe I would be a decent English professor, eh?) Again, reading something like this for recreational purposes always provokes my imagination even more. I always try to imagine reading it as a person would when it was first published and very controversial, makes for an interesting perspective.