Reviews

Nostromo Illustrated by Joseph Conrad

belockwood's review against another edition

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4.0

I read part of this book in AP English class in high school, and plan to read it all the way through someday. We couldn't afford books, so we had printed pages off the internet (it's available through the Gutenberg Project). Conrad's writing style is always a challenge, but that is part of the fun of reading his work. Once you work through his complex and flourishing sentences, you generally get something truly beautiful. It's also nice to read something by him other than Heart of Darkness, which it seems everyone has read.

ajreader's review against another edition

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2.0

Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.

Another Conrad adventure story - another Conrad book I simply did not enjoy.

Here's the thing. Conrad was not a bad writer. Not by any means. As with so many of his books, I truly do understand why his work was so popular and rose to such acclaim. From a modern perspective, the market is so saturated with adventure novels that it no longer seems especially special, but in its day, it was ground breaking in many ways.

wickedcestus's review against another edition

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5.0

This is a good book. It's about Europeans in South America extracting silver and being morose. There are adventures and misadventures. The characters are not people as much as vessels for Big Ideals. Some of them have Big Dreams. Their Big Dreams often conflict with other characters' Big Ideals. It's a good time.

jessby's review against another edition

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1.0

When you lose concentration reading the blurb you know it's going to be a struggle. I read the first 5 pages and realised it's a struggle I'm not up for at the moment. It's a DNF.

manaledi's review against another edition

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2.0

I didn't make much progress in this before my library loan expired and zero motivation to go back to it. The centrality of Conrad to the high school English curriculum has too much to do with white male privilege and the centering of white people in stories that are not about them and I'm over it.

brdgtc's review against another edition

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2.0

Ponderous.

officerdean's review against another edition

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3.0

I really thought I would love this novel, but with the pacing and narrative I found it a tough read. It took me awhile to get comfortable with the characters and I found the first half of the book to be very boring. It picked up in the second half and I really enjoyed the conclusion. Nostromo has its moments and I can see its brilliance, but it just wasn't for me.

sliver13's review against another edition

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2.0

I read legal documents for a living so I don’t normally knock things for being dull, but man life’s too short for this

black_october's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The best novel out there if you want a scathing study of empire and corruption, or just a tale about love, war, adventure and treasure.

chairmanbernanke's review against another edition

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4.0

A great Conrad classic.