Week #42 – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel

Week #42 –  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm

First published:  As a serial 1899, as a book in 1902

Here's what the story is about: Sailor Charles Marlow, captain of a river steamboat for a Belgian ivory trade company, journeys up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, an ivory trader. Marlow encounters inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native Africans have been forced into the Company’s service and exploited.

First line/paragraph:

The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.

This paragraph does not give us a hint of POV, but by the second paragraph it is clearly in first person POV. The setting is on a boat and apparently on a river. We don't know anything about the narrator/character at this point, except that he/she is on a boat stopped on a river. There is the hint of a plot based on travel along a river. I'd probably give this a few pages to see if it grabbed my interest.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this book in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!