This past semester I had to take a class that consisted of ALL Conrad, All the time. While I would not recommend it, I think this experience has given me a pretty valid opinion, so here goes. Also, for those of you that know that the enjoyability of a class is directly related to the personality of the teacher that instructs it, I would like to note that I LOVED this teacher. She was nice and understanding and I would have hated Conrad more had I not taken this class with her.
Here is the list of books I read for this semester:
Heart of Darkness (1899)
Lord Jim (1900)
Falk (1901)
Typhoon (1902)
The Mirror of the Sea (1904-1906)
The Secret Agent (1907)
Il Conde (1908)
The Secret Sharer (1909)
Victory (1915)
In my humble opinion, Conrad is one of the most boring, redundant, and dry authors I have ever come across. All of the books previously mentioned, with the exception of The Secret Agent take place at sea, on an island, ship, port, ect. There are generally some sort of tortured heroes, self-sacrificing women, and big storms. DO NOT read Mirror of the Sea. This is a collection of essays about sailing, the topics include: the importance of wind, the relationships between captains and crewmen, and the role an anchor plays on a ship. It put me to sleep every time I picked it up. If I had to recommend some Conrad, I would say that Victory was decent, and The Secret Agent was not unbearable. Hitchcock made a film about the later (Sabotage 1936). And lastly, for the record, Heart of Darkness is incredibly overrated.
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