Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness - Free
1899

Joseph Conrad left Poland at sixteen to enlist as a sailor in order to see the world. This is evident in his writings as many of his stories have to do with sailing. He did not become fluent in English until his mid twenties and his writing style has a foreign sensibility. He was able to incorporate a tragic feelings into his English prose that had not been seen before. He is now widely considered one of the best English language writers.

Heart of Darkness is number 67 in the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels. It is a novella originally published in three parts in Blackwood’s Magazine.

Marlow is the main character sent by the company to restore the company’s name by bringing back Kurtz. Marlow narrates most of the story. Kurtz has been down river in Africa trading for Ivory and he is giving the company a bad name. Marlow is appointed boat captain and goes down river to see what is happening. Conrad uses symbolism in the book to show man’s descent into savagery. As Marlow goes farther down river and time passes and gets darker he is getting closer to madness, closer to Kurtz.

The language in this book can be difficult at times. It has been called dense. But the language is not the only difficulty with this book. The themes and approach to imperialism have been points of discussion among literary scholars. Conrad at times is critical of imperialism.

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”

Yet, the book has been criticized for being a justification of imperialism. Chinua Achebe has written brilliant criticism of Heart of Darkness and even advocates that people not read this book. His novel Things Fall Apart is writing back to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s critique of imperialism has been challenged because the book can be seen as a justification for imperialism because it is can be read more as a warning. Conrad never gives voice to the africans in the book. He is warning against the shaming of europeans tactics and

“They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.”

While he seems to be sympathetic to their plight, he still only writes about the european’s plight. Conrad was writing in a very different time when just writing about imperialisms imperfection was a form of criticism. Conrad wrote a terrific novel that was years ahead of its time. It is considered to be a precursor to modern literature. Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart can be read as authors in conversation. They are often studied together in Modern Literature courses.

Francis Ford Coppola made a great movie adaptation of Heart of Darkness in 1979 called Apocalypse Now. It places the story in Vietnam and has Kurtz as a rogue Army Colonel.

Check out our Facebook Page and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to your Kindle. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart - $9.99
1958

I am always peddling books to people, much like this blog. I was at my nieces birthday party this past weekend and some friends I don't see too often were there. Like always my topics for discussion consisted of great books to read. I have become the go to guy whenever someone is looking for something good to read. I think I also am a great conversationalist because I have been enlightened by so many authors. Like most people, my friend is very busy and does not have as much time as he would like to to read books. He was asking me for the very best books to read and I recommended a few. He asked me what my favorite books are and so on. The one that peaked everyones interest from my description about the topic alone was Things Fall Apart. I do not give plot outlines when describing books, mainly because that is not my main interest in reading. I like ideas and characters and what they can teach me.

When describing Things Fall Apart I said it was an anti imperialist novel.

Anti imperialism n. - a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism.

What I mean is that it is written from the perspective of the colonized. Chinua Achebe is a nigerian author and an amazing writer. He is writing from a  very different perspective of the colonization of Africa. He is directly writing back to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which is also a wonderful book but not as easy to read. Achebe gives voice to all the Africans in Heart of Darkness that are described but never speak.

Chinua Achebe writes about the consequences of european colonization in Africa.

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

Achebe does not pull any punches when criticizing the tactics used to devastate the African culture. The novel can be applied to all regions of the world that western civilization came to “discover,” never mind the fact that people were already living in complex societies. Achebe makes this novel universal by including quotes such as:

"We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true."

The novel was first published in 1958 and Achebe is writing about an earlier time, when Africa was being divided into sections belonging to different European countries. What surprised me about the date of first publication is how current the novel feels. Achebe has a great command of the English language and the novel has a timeless feel. It could have been written this century, the last one of the one before. Things Fall Apart was the first african novel to get worldwide attention and acclaim. It is included in the World Library’s 100 Best Books of All Time.

Things Fall Apart has become a staple of literature courses around the world. It is also studied in conjunction with Heart of Darkness, which is a great way to study the novels. This is how I first read this novel in my twentieth century british literature class.

While researching the novel I found out that this is the first in his “African Trilogy,” which also includes No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964). I sent over samples of the books to my Kindle for later reading. Send a sample of this book to your Kindle and start your virtual “to read” book shelf.

I hope my friends are reading this book and I really hope the readers of this blog read it. It is one of the best books ever written and you don’t have to take my word for it. You know people like a recommendation when they google the name of the book on their phones to save it for later.

Check out our Facebook Page and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to your Kindle. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Anonymous
The Epic of Gilgamesh - $5.59
2150 - 2000 BCE

The Gilgamesh Epic dates back to the Bronze age! That is over 4000 years old. It was discovered in 1853 or 1849, depending on the source. This great work was lost for thousands of years. It dates back to the earliest civilizations in the fertile crescent, modern day Iraq and surrounding areas.

Epic n. - A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation

The Epic survives in tablets. The standard versions of the epic consist of twelve tablets. They also found a few other versions in different languages and they used the different versions to fill in the missing or broken pieces.

The Akkadian versions is considered the standard version. They also have an older babylonian version and alternate poems of the different parts of the epic in Sumerian.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is split into two parts. The first part is the tale of Gilgamesh who was a demigod and a bad ruler to his people. The gods create a rival to Gilgamesh in Enkidu. Enkidu has many similarities to Adam in the bible. Gilgamesh and Enkidu battle and Gilgamesh is the superior fighter but they end up becoming friends. Gilgamesh was lonely as a demigod and now he has an equal. They go about doing heroic deeds until Enkidu is killed.

The second part of the epic is Gilgamesh quest for immortality. He is distraught over the death of Enkidu who he thought immortal like himself. Gilgamesh searches for the secret to eternal life and does not find it.

"The life that you are seeking you will never find. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping."

He does find a version of immortality in the form of epic poetry. The poem survives today and so does Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is now considered to have really lived, not as a demigod but as a king in ancient times.

When I first heard of the Gilgamesh epic I knew I had to read it. It is one of the oldest pieces of literature that humans have created. What surprised me about the story is how good it is. I don’t know why I didn't expect this epic to be as good as others. The Odyssey is one of my favorites works of literature and that is about 2500 years old. That is considered one of the best things ever written and I think that Gilgamesh is not up there yet because it has not been around as long because it was lost. It has not had enough time to be studied and become a part of our culture. Gilgamesh has only been studied for 150 years compared to The Odyssey that has influenced all literature for 2500 years.

Gilgamesh seems to be more interesting to historians than to literature professors. The epic just needs more people like us to read and spread the word.

Here are the different versions of the epic available in the Kindle store:

1 An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic - Free This is one of the versions I read. Compares the different versions of the tablets and has a lot of analysis as well as a history of the tablets.

2 The Epic of Gilgamesh (Classics) - $5.59 This is the Penguin Classics versions. Has a great introduction and is the standard versions of the epic.

3 Gilgamesh: The Oldest Epic Tale (Annotated) - $0.99 This versions compiles the tablets to produce a more complete text of the story. This is an almost direct translation with some annotations.

Check out our Facebook Page and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to your Kindle. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Autobiography of Mark Twain

Mark Twain
Autobiography of Mark Twain - $9.79
2010

Mark Twain had a knack for delivering the unexpected. He made a name for himself as a journalist while not writing the stories he set out to. He would procrastinate until the last minute then turn in something different to his editor. This was a nightmare to his editor but exactly what the people wanted. He was a very popular writer in his time because even though he was a humorist he never attacked people in a negative way.

Twain knew what he was writing in his autobiography and asked that it not be printed until 100 years after his death. He did not want to diminish his popular persona. He said he wouldn't care what people thought about him 100 years. He also thought that if he wasn't being discussed 100 years later this would be a way of making himself relevant. No one could of guessed that he would still be as widely read 100 years after his death as he was when he was a very popular living writer.

Mark Twain was always tactful. He could make someone feel important even when insulting them.

"This book is not a revenge-record. When I build a fire under a person in it, I do not do it merely because of the enjoyment I get out of seeing him fry, but because he is worth the trouble. It is then a compliment, a distinction; let him give thanks and keep quiet. I do not fry the small, the commonplace, the unworthy."

The autobiography is compiled of things he wrote that he did not want published as well as writings specifically written to be included here.

"It is a system which is a complete and purposed jumble — a course which begins nowhere, follows no specific route, and can never reach an end while I am alive, for the reason that if I should talk to the stenographer two hours a day for a hundred years, I should still never be able to set down a tenth part of the things which have interested me in my lifetime."

He wanted the autobiography published 100 years after his death but his estate published it several times before. Twain published a few chapters that he thought acceptable before he died.

Chapters from My Autobiography - Free

Here is a previous version of the autobiography. This is not the new edited version but is very close and much cheaper.

Autobiography of Mark Twain - $2.99

This is the second piece in the Mark Twain series. Knowing the background of a writer will help in understanding some of the points and in getting a better understanding. By reading the Henderson Biography on Twain and the Autobiography, you will be ready to dive into the Mark Twain library.

Check out our Facebook Page and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to your Kindle. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Mark Twain

Archibald Henderson
Mark Twain Biography- Free
1911

I have been reading this really great biography on Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson. The biography was published a year after Twain’s death in 1910. Henderson personally knew Twain and wrote the biography from his experiences and from the interviews of people who knew Twain at important points in his life.

Henderson was a great admirer of Mark Twain, or Samuel Langhorne Clemens as he was born. He appreciated his humor and recounts many stories about Twain that relate to his writings. He recounts childhood stories from Twain’s life and ties them to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

“The cave, so graphically described in Tom Sawyer, was one of Sam’s favourite haunts; and his first sweetheart was Laura Hawkins, the Becky Thatcher of Tom’s admiration.”

Henderson also explains why Samuel Clemens chose the pen name Mark Twain. Twain was a river boat pilot for two and a half years. You have to mark “twain” regularly to find out the depth of the water so that the boat does not run aground. He chose Mark Twain because it was shorter than Samuel Clemens and because it meant nothing to 99% of Americans at the time. He was reporting for newspapers and didn't want to affect what people read by writing under a name that they knew already. In his last years, Twain commented that he liked that he added meaning to the name Mark Twain and that people all over the world now knew the name.

There are many great stories about Twain in the biography and the main reason for the book seems to be to argue that Mark Twain is not just a popular author but that his works are works of literature. Henderson compared Twain to Tolstoy and says that the main difference between the two is that Twain used humor to reach more people with his writings. Twain was considered a humorist but should be considered an important writer as well. Twain remains popular today, over 100 years after his death and is read and studied from elementary school through universities. Henderson was one of the first people to write about how important Twain was to literature and history seems to agree with him.

When studying literature it is always helpful to get a background on the author of the work. Knowing where and how the author is approaching writing helps to understand the themes presented in the work. For example, knowing that Twain was a humorist who makes light or pokes fun at serious issues will help to understand his use of the “N” word in Huckleberry Finn. He does not use the word because he was a racist, he puts the word in the mouth of a child and shows the disconnect between the word and meaning to a child. Huck Finn was using the word because society used the word but he was coming from a place of love for the run away slave. Society, at the time, was using the word as a racist label and Twain was being satirical in using it. Maybe, if people knew more about Twain’s intention, Huckleberry Finn will stop being banned in schools for the flagrant use of the “N” word.

Henderson argues that Twain is not just a great American writer but one of the most important writers in the world. Twain has certainly lived up to the hype. Mark Twain is one of my favorite authors and I know that I cannot praise him as much as I should. As Twain said himself, 

“he feels embarrassed accepting compliments because the complimenter never says enough!” 

This is a great biography for those that have not yet read the works of Mark Twain and also for those that have read a lot. This is the first in a series on Mark Twain posts. Stay tuned for the next one!

We have a new Facebook Page, check it out and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

The Road

Cormac McCarthy
The Road - $11.99
2006

Isn’t it always the case that the book is better than the movie? Has it become a cliche that everyone says that now? One book that comes to mind is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I loved the book when I read it and when I heard the movie was coming out I couldn't wait. I know that books are always better but some have turned into really good movies as well. When I finally saw the film version of The Road I wanted to love it. Yet, every scene would remind me of what they left out. The movie was good and if you didn't read the book you will really like it. What they always fail to include in the movies is the internal monologue of the characters. Even though there is almost none of that in The Road, you get a sense of what the characters are feeling by the lack of detail. The lack of details and communication gives you a sense of isolation and hopelessness, just like their surroundings.

The movie is dark and depressing. They did a great job staying true to the book. The main thing that is missing is the haunting feeling you get after reading the novel. For that you have to read the novel.

McCarthy is a master storyteller. He leaves the details for us to fill in. He shows us how the characters are feeling by what they do and how they interact with each other. He leaves so many things for us to fill in that the man and the boy are never named. It is up to us to fill in the faces and the names.

Cormac McCarthy has won numerous awards including the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for The Road. He is considered one of the best American writers and is being mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. McCarthy is a very private author but in the few interviews I found he is very opinionated. According to wikipedia:

In one of his few interviews (with The New York Times), McCarthy reveals that he is not a fan of authors who do not "deal with issues of life and death," citing Henry James and Marcel Proust as examples. "I don't understand them," he said. "To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange."

He sounds like a fascinating man. He is a great author and look for him to continue to write great books. If you haven’t read The Road yet, you definitely should. Download a sample and you will be hooked. This is one of the best books written in the last ten years, according to many sources. Check out the movie as well but make sure your read the book first!

We have a new Facebook Page, check it out and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

July 2012 Roundup

Cover of The Los Angeles Diaries

Kindle Literature had another great month in July. Our readership is increasing daily but we still have not received a review on Amazon. If you like the blog, you can leave us a review on the Kindle Literature Amazon page and that would really help with spreading the word about Kindle Literature. Also, check out our Kindle Literature Facebook Page to keep up with the latest news.

Here are the books covered in July.

Walden - An early American masterpiece by Henry David Thoreau. Walden was a social experiment by a very influential American philosopher.

Kindle Giveaways - A post about three Kindle giveaways in July. The giveaways have ended but they are sponsoring new giveaways for August.

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane’s war novel about the American Civil War. A great classic that needs to be studied more.

The Giver - The award winning children’s book that has been banned. This is a great book that adults can also enjoy.

The Los Angeles Diaries - James Brown’s wonderful memoir about perseverance and coming to terms with life’s tragedies.

Animal Farm - George Orwell’s allegory about the Soviet revolution. Number 31 on the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels.

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous novel. The book blends metafiction and science fiction. A sheer pleasure to read. Number 18 on Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels.

You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.