Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh Audiobook By Joseph Conrad cover art

Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

Preview

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

By: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.95

Buy for $14.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Prose that demands to be read aloud requires a special kind of narrator. For the Audible Signature Classics edition of Joseph Conrad’s atmospheric masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, we called upon four-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh.

Branagh’s performance is riveting because he reads as though he’s telling a ghost story by a campfire, capturing the story’s sense of claustrophobia, while hinting at the storyteller Marlow’s own creeping madness. Heart of Darkness follows Captain Marlow into the colonial Congo where he searches for a mysterious ivory trader, Kurtz, and discovers an evil that will haunt him forever.

With this landmark work, Conrad is credited with bringing the novel into the twentieth century; we think Branagh brings it into the twenty-first.

Stay tuned for more one-of-a-kind performances from actors David Hyde Pierce, Leelee Sobieski, Tim Curry, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.

Listen to more Audible Signature Classics.

Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Classics Scary Inspiring British Mysteries
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Editorial reviews

"The horror! The horror!" In this brooding and justly celebrated novella of 1902, seaman Charles Marlow is cruising quietly down the Thames at dusk with some friends. As night begins to fall, he tells them of his harrowing journey down an African river in search of the unscrupulous and near-legendary ivory trader named Kurtz, a quest deep into inky spiritual and symbolic darkness. Acclaimed Irish actor/director Kenneth Branagh impersonates Marlow in this recording. Admirably, while fully playing the drama, he never goes overboard. He plays the tale for the great yarn that it is. But had he taken more cognizance of its trajectory and subtleties, he would have made the listening experience far richer than he has.

Critic reviews

"Acclaimed Irish actor/director Kenneth Branagh impersonates Marlow in this recording. Admirably, while fully playing the drama, he never goes overboard. He plays the tale for the great yarn that it is." ( AudioFile)

Featured Article: 35+ Quotes About Hard Work to Keep You Motivated and Moving Forward


The things most worth doing require the most from us—it takes hard work to accomplish important tasks, achieve major goals, and realize your dreams. Commitment, sweat, exhaustion, frustration, and a willingness to fail are all necessary parts of taking on challenges. When you’re in the middle of a difficult project, there will be times when you’re tempted to simply give up. In such moments, look to these quotes about hard work to keep you going.

What listeners say about Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,389
  • 4 Stars
    2,246
  • 3 Stars
    1,063
  • 2 Stars
    351
  • 1 Stars
    171
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6,589
  • 4 Stars
    1,075
  • 3 Stars
    359
  • 2 Stars
    95
  • 1 Stars
    72
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,457
  • 4 Stars
    1,939
  • 3 Stars
    1,191
  • 2 Stars
    393
  • 1 Stars
    185

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The (Beautiful and Appalling) Horror!

Kenneth Branagh gives a mesmerizing reading of Heart of Darkness, bringing out all the darkly beautiful surfaces and bleakly existential undercurrents of Joseph Conrad's novella, as well as convincingly voicing all the characters, from the sensitive and scarred British Marlow to the slimy Belgian trading company men, creepy Russian disciple, and charismatic and appalling Kurtz and his ever-grieving fiance.

The book has been criticized for portraying Africans as sub-human, and it is true that Conrad (and hence Branagh) gives almost no voice to the native population, but I find in Heart of Darkness less racist condescension towards the Africans and more moral outrage towards their European colonial exploiters.

The nearly four-hour audiobook, during which Marlow recounts his journey into the Congo to find the "genius" trading agent Kurtz, quickly caught me and carried me inexorably towards "The horror! The horror!" and its haunting aftermath. It left me stunned and grimly impressed (though somehow not depressed) by its disturbing depiction of the raping of Africa by colonial powers like Belgium (taking countless tons of ivory in exchange for worthless glass beads and shabby fabrics, imposing incomprehensible laws onto the native peoples and brutally punishing them for the slightest infractions, and so on), and by its timely application to the developed world's current exploitation of the Congo ("conflict minerals") and of Africa in general (diamonds, oil and other resources). But the greatness of the novella lies in its transcending specific examples like Africa and universalizing the heart of darkness to include England in the time of the Romans and all human beings in any time, exposing the heart of darkness in all of us.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Performance

Branagh gives a masterful performance and, yes, it is a performance. His confident portrayal of the characters, even the female ones, is so spot on. This is the kind of book that I joined Audible for. My education left me with a few holes literature-wise and Audible is how I'm going to plug those holes. I can only hope that other books will be given the bravura effort that Branagh gives here. I can not think of any reservation although it might be interesting to see the movie "Apocalypse Now" before or after hearing this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely!

I'm a high school senior and we're about to read Heart of Darkness in a few weeks, so I figured I'd download this to help me out a bit. It's been an interesting listen. I thought it was pretty humorous that Kenneth Branagh is narrating, as we recently saw him perform in Hamlet after reading the play a few months ago (he was excellent) and he's also the narrator for the documentaries we're watching in History class. What a coincidence! His voice is lovely, enticing almost, so I'm glad that he narrated this. Now, I'll be just about fully acquainted with Kenneth Branagh's voice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The best way to experience a chilling classic

What did you love best about Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh?

Kenneth Branagh's performance is amazing. I could listen to the man read the proverbial phone book, but he did more than simply read, he inhabited the narrator character who is slowly going insane.

What other book might you compare Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh to and why?

It is a classic unreliable narrator story, and has influenced many succeeding works. In the ghost story vein, it reminds me a bit of Poe.

Which scene was your favorite?

It is hard to pick out one in particular, but as they go deeper in, the book (and the performance) just keeps getting better.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Well, clearly this book inspired Apocalpse Now, but I would call it An Imperialist Ghost Story.

Any additional comments?

I read this book in college about 30 years ago, but this performance gave a whole new dimension to the book. Frankly, it was a difficult book for me to focus on then, but this experience was riveting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mesmerizing

Branagh’s reading is exceptional. He captures the voice of the story narrator Marlowe, so naturally and feelingly. Hypnotic reading of a dark and challenging tale.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Branagh

Branagh worked magic into this novel. Literature sometimes us very difficult to read, and I recommend this format for thus very dense book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

*SIR* Kenneth Branagh reading Conrad? Yes.

The short book is ubiquitous is the hallways and libraries of the world. And for good reason. The snide, seething, and bitter tone of the entire piece was expertly -performed- not just read. Both HoD and Sir Branagh speak for themselves and here we get to experience their exquisite toe-to-toe. The outcome of the meleé is art. We're all the winners🏆

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Didn’t love it.

I didn’t love it. Maybe I was distracted but not much seemed to happen. I know it’s short, but I thought more would happen in the story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The most elegant of writers.

If you could sum up Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh in three words, what would they be?

Complex, gorgeous writing

What did you like best about this story?

writing and the narrator

What about Kenneth Branagh’s performance did you like?

He was amazing! I especially liked how he seemed out of breath at the most horrific of passages.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Any additional comments?

This is an audio you need to listen to several times, there is so much to it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Literature Performed Brilliantly

Nobody writes like Conrad, and Branagh rises to the challenge, bringing you into the darkness.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!