I'm rating this higher than I did last time around, but not by much. It's not my favorite book by a long shot, but after learning more about Joseph Conrad and writing about textile manufacturing practices  contemporary to Conrad's writing of the book in how they relate to its content, I got a lot more out of it this time around.
It's a slow paced book, but time moves quickly for the characters.

A very mild read, whose status as a classic is surely upheld by its relevance as a historical document. Conrad harshly criticizes colonialism, but does so from within the racist framework of his times.
I liked that the reader is constantly reminded that the story is being told by a specific character with specific views on life, and therefore is only one of many different perspectives on the narrated events.
Conrad paints the colonial environment and the Congolese forest as engulfed in a haunting, menacing spell that gives an air of magic realism to the novella – when it did not have the tones of exoticism, it painted a beautiful picture.

This book was difficult to read at points because of the racist attitudes and actions of many of the characters. I recognize it was a product of its time. But I am not of that time. The language was very evocative. The book is wonderfully written.

I found this book intriguing while at the same time feeling like I was missing a lot of the nuances of the story. After looking at some other reviews written by people with experience studying and critiquing English literature, it turns out I'm right! Overall, I was lulled by the descriptive narrative into a different world where a seaman, Charlie Marlow, remains haunted by a job years earlier where he was part of a ship sailing into the African Congo on behalf of a trading company in search of an employee named Captain Kurtz who's gone missing from his assignment at a remote trading station.

The story is told from the perspective of someone listening to Marlow recount his unusual adventure into the African jungle, encountering for the first time people native to the continent and entirely different in looks and behavior from people he's encountered in the past. While it's a mission of discovery, Marlow is very clear-eyed that the trading company is in the business of exploiting the land and its people via the harsh reality of brutal colonization back in the 19th Century. The language used to reference and describe the African people is rough, but since this book was written in the 1800's, it's likely accurate for the time.

There are periodic bouts of action, and while the majority of the story is a recounting of one person's past experience, it was engaging to hear the descriptions of Marlow's experiences and reactions. The pace didn't feel slow and Marlow was not a bad guy, evident by the way in which he acknowledged working for the trading company, but his words seemed to infer that he felt it was not good for Africa to be exploited for profit. Many times in Marlow's story when he talked about the African landscape and people, it sounded like he was in awe of what he was seeing, with very little disdain, if any.

When the story finally reaches the point where Captain Kurtz is found, the tone becomes much more lively due to Marlow's interactions with the Russian trader, easily one of the most animated and endearing characters in the story. This man has been living on his own and surviving in the jungle, and may be a little off kilter, but has a good heart and is able to provide Marlow with valuable insight into what's happened with Captain Kurtz.

The myth of Captain Kurtz has engrossed Marlow and finding the man consumes him entirely. Not a lot of detail is given about their time together, but it makes a decided impression on Marlow. By the conclusion of the story, the reader will have taken a journey with Marlow and understand why the adventure has haunted him for many years after.

I listened to the audiobook and although it sounds like an older CD recording that's been spliced together, the audio is clear and the narrator, Scott Brick, does sound like he could be Marlow. This lends to the audiobook being a good choice since Heart of Darkness is actually someone recounting a story they were told by someone else sitting out one night on the deck of a ship.