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I struggled with this book for quite a while, but about half way through I began to enjoy it. The only other Conrad I've read is The Heart of Darkness and that was many years ago. My recollection is that Conrad was much more concise in that book. The themes were important and mainly dealt with attitudes related to colonialism. The plot was straight forward.
I found this book meandered a lot. I didn't like the way it was narrated from The Professor of Languages, but I guess that was the point; viewing the story from western eyes. In that regard I think that Conrad's criticisms of the Russian regime was actually quite measured and not quite as "western" as I had expected. He seemed equally critical of the revolutionaries, which caught me off guard. Frankly, when they weren't just plain violent and murderous they were bumbling fools. I thought they'd inspire more hope. Perhaps I just missed something.
I think what I liked ultimately was that Conrad successfully made me see the murderous Haldin, who I hated at first, as a true hero. Razumov, lily white at the beginning with me firmly in his corner, eventually bugs me. I think we're to feel the same way about Haldin as revolutionaries in general similarly Razumov represents the regime of the day. I know that's obvious and rather simple, but for me, it worked.
And again, I was really surprised at how balanced and evenhandedly Conrad chooses to portray a view "under western eyes."
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