I started this novella after watching Apocalypse Now. This is my second time reading Conrad. I have a hazy memory of reading The Secret Sharer for school, maybe a paragraph or two of Heart of Darkness as well. From that experience I can only recall vague beats of the plot, dense prose, a general sense of darkness.

I found the novella to be gripping and unsettling. The writing mirrors it's subject matter; There is a dense, impenetrable quality that only enhances the pervading sense of unease. It feels gothic in that way. I've been reading up on some analysis in order to try to understand it a little better, because frankly I don't feel like I completely "get" it. Or, my understanding of it doesn't feel immediate. In this search, what has affected me the most was someone pointing out the difference between the first and last descriptions of the Thames river. What was once the "luminous" witness to the beginnings of English civilization, now "seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." That transformation in perspective seems to be the crux of the matter to me.