King Leopold's Ghost- the finale

King Leopold's Ghost is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is a history book, overwhelming filled with facts, people, stories, and pictures, but it reads as smoothly as a novel. It is one of the few books that I both enjoyed reading, simply because it presented historical fact in a story-like manner, but also had difficulty reading because of the vast amount of detail and the content.

The content of this book is what sets it apart from other books. I finished reading it and was left with thoughts of the details, the facts, people, stories, and pictures; not with thoughts busy analyzing how literary techniques worked in the writing, which is what I am used to thinking about during a book and after. I am left with not only the knowledge of the content, but the huge impression it has made on me. The one idea I cannot shake is how contemporary these events are.

I found a timeline of the events described in King Leopold's Ghost, which helps immensely because I started losing track of people and dates about halfway through this book. It was also interesting to me to read through the timeline and think about what was happening in American history at the same time. I have discovered in my Life and Culture in France class that I have a difficult time imagining the historical importance of something that happened before the 1600's, simply because I have learned mainly American history in my education, and we don't really have more than three or four hundred years of American history.

King Leopold's Ghost makes it easier for me to overcome the problem of struggling to comprehend the existence of the events of the Congo, because it narrates so many international events and issues that influenced and formed the Congo, and not just the isolated events in the Congo itself.

I found a travel guide website with a photos from Congo... tourist-geared, obviously, but it unconsciously shows what the Congo was...

... And what it became.

On a side-note, I recieved my copy of Heart of Darkness today, and discovered it isn't just the novel, it also includes Joseph Conrad's diary from part of his time in Africa and his "Up-River Book"-notes, illustrations, and observations on navigation of the Congo river. I love Amazon and its $1.87+shipping surprises. Does anyone else's book include these?