Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh

By: Joseph Conrad

Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Branagh

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

*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🏆

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.

Brilliant Literature Performed Brilliantly

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

Best of the Best

Heart of Darkness is one of my all time favorites. I have purchased and listened to several audio versions but Branagh has out-voiced them all. This is the best version - a must have!!