Heart of Darkness

Much shorter than I had expected from this often studied classic fictionalisation of Conrad's time in the Congo DR, or Belgian Congo as it was unfortunate to be at the time. Leopold was a ego maniacal madman at whose hands the Congo became a plaything to be exploited for his person wealth - but this is really just the background to the part of history the story takes place in.

The writing I found to wonderfully descriptive. I read some reviews by people who dismissed it as poorly written and unnecessarily complex. I think there is a difference between reading of your own free will, and having to read a book for University, and most people bemoaning the difficultly of reading it (it is 101 pages long! (although my copy has ridiculously small print)) are students.

There is simply no point in plot descriptions, there are hundreds of reviews to give that.
Here are a few sentences I enjoyed:

The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. describing the Thames, P2.

Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. in the upper Congo river, P43.