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The Secret Agent: Centennial Editon

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 5,979 ratings · 440 reviews

Inspired by an actual attempt in 1894 to blow up London's Greenwich Observatory, here is a chillingly prophetic examination of contemporary terrorism-and the literary precursor to today's espionage thriller.

Paperback, 272 pages

Published April 3rd 2007 by Signet Classics (first published 1907)

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May 05, 2013 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

My ratings are very moody and just generally not to be trusted. Having gotten that fact out in the open for the umpteenth time, I will say that I thought this was a very good book. Love, no. Like very much, yes. I especially hearted the last-ish part with the wife and the train and ole dude's stop, drop, and roll in mid-air move because ACTION! SUSPENSE! HEARTBREAK! PLOTSY TWIRLS! In fact, most of my favorite scenes involved Winnie V, while some other sections, particularly some of the more beat...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Yulia marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I actually thought the first chapter was perfection. So how could the creator of that chapter have produced the second chapter, allowing everything he'd built up to be ravaged by adverbs? Did Conrad use up his Spidey juice? Or was he saving his talent for later efforts, believing one solid chapter would be enough to lull the reader into head-bobbing idolatry? I don't get it.

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Jan 25, 2013 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, read-at-school

this is a re-read - chosen because it was a small hardback copy and fitted in my inside pocket so's I could read on the train (replacement bus!) on a trip to the folks. About time I re-read anyway, the last time was for 'A' level in 1973. The copy I have is a school copy too (from 1960), and has double lines next to paragraphs saying 'IRONY' and others 'DESCRIPTION' - I'm glad they told me, I wouldn't have known.

Read c100 pages on the trip there and back and it's as good as I remember, although...more this is a re-read - chosen because it was a small hardback copy and fitted in my inside pocket so's I could read on the train (replacement bus!) on a trip to the folks. About time I re-read anyway, the last time was for 'A' level in 1973. The copy I have is a school copy too (from 1960), and has double lines next to paragraphs saying 'IRONY' and others 'DESCRIPTION' - I'm glad they told me, I wouldn't have known.

Read c100 pages on the trip there and back and it's as good as I remember, although I thought the explosion came later on in the book, was almost the climax, but it comes really early on...

..fantastic. OK there was a slight lull about half way through where there are a lot of meetings in boardrooms and offices, men pontificating, albeit enlivened by such wonderful descriptions as Sir Ethelred opened a wide mouth, like a cavern, into which the hooked nose seemed anxious to peer; there came from it a subdued rolling sound, as from a distant organ with the scornful indignation stop.

Also as this book points out Conrad makes occasional slips of grammar (eg 'steady like a rock' instead of 'as'). My 'A' level teacher, I remember, said he had a 'florid' style, not altogether approvingly, but I loved it. I remember learning new words like 'incarceration' (I came from a pretty book-less house) and 'hperborean'. I also loved (and still do) the vivid images: Winnie's shadow on the ceiling and the upturned hat being two that have stuck through the 40 years since I read it; London as a wheezy, corrupt and deadening character itself (a la Dickens): the enormous town slumbering monstrously on a carpet of mud under a veil of raw mist. And of course the actual characters: the indolent Verloc; the misanthropic Professor who has a bomb strapped to him at all times. Stevie. And most of all Winnie. It is Winnie's book in the end, it is all about the problems of loving in a brutal and/or expedient world. About someone waking up to find the world not as they thought, and too much to take. Five big stars.(less)

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May 27, 2008 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I thought that The Secret Agent was a genuinely fascinating profile of modern (by which I mean 1905) London society, and I found Conrad's picture of society being driven by personal interest and the lust for political power to be incredibly modern (by which I mean 2008) in its deep pessimism and sceptical view of human nature. Conrad presents us with a wide spectrum of characters, from loyal wives and impoverished cabdrivers to police officers and activist anarchists, each of whom is motivated...more I thought that The Secret Agent was a genuinely fascinating profile of modern (by which I mean 1905) London society, and I found Conrad's picture of society being driven by personal interest and the lust for political power to be incredibly modern (by which I mean 2008) in its deep pessimism and sceptical view of human nature. Conrad presents us with a wide spectrum of characters, from loyal wives and impoverished cabdrivers to police officers and activist anarchists, each of whom is motivated to play their particular societal role by their own driving self-interest. Politics influences everything and everyone has ulterior motives.
The central plot is a conspiracy theorist's dream-- a foreign embassy orders one of it's undercover agents, known in London as Mr. Verloc, to stage an explosion in London in order to give the embassy justification for it's anti-revolutionary efforts abroad. The cold calculation with which this act of terrorism is planned, in order to help the government to maximum effect, is genius, dripping with ironic detachment:

"A bomb outrage to have any influence on public opinion now must go beyond the intention of vengeance or terrorism. It must be purely destructive. It must be that, and only that, beyond the faintest suspicion of any other object. You anarchists should make it clear that you are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation. But how to get that appallingly absurd notion into the heads of the middle classes so that there should be no mistake?...By directing your blows at something outside the ordinary passions of humanity is the answer. Of course, there is art. A bomb in the National Gallery would make some noise. But it would not be serious enough. Art has never been their fetish....There would be some screaming of course, but from whom? Artists-- art critics and such like--....Nobody minds what they say. But there is learning-- science. Any imbecile that has got some income belives in that. He does not know why, but he believes it matters somehow....All the damned professors are radicals at heart. Let them know that their great panjandrum has got to go, too, to make room for the Future of the Proletariat....Their indignation would be above suspicion, no material interests being openly at stake, and it will alarm the selfishness of the class which should be impressed. They believe that in some mysterious way science is at the source of their material prosperity....And the absurd ferocity of such a demonstration will affect them more profoundly than the mangling of a whole street--or theatre-- full of their own kind."

This perfect bomb plot goes awry and when we are presented with a picture of how the lives of Mr. Verloc and his family and associates are effected, we can see clearly how everyone is struggling for self-preservation and how each move they make is carefully calculated in order to ensure the greatest advantage for themselves.
This negative view of humanity extends to Conrad's physical descriptions of his characters as well. We are treated to lengthy, gleefully ugly descriptions of the hideous gargoyles populating London. The grotesque details grab the imagination and ably caricature the filthy urban cesspool that Conrad presents us with.

Try this on for size:

"His flat, large ears departed widely from the sides of his skull, which looked frail enough...to crush between thumb and forefinger; the dome of the forehead seemed to rest of the rim of the spectacles; the flat cheeks, of a greasy, unhealthy complexion, were merely smudged by the miserable poverty of a thin dark whisker. The lamentable inferiority of the whole physique was made ludicrous by the supremely self-confident bearing of the individual. His speech was curt, and he had a particularly impressive manner of keeping silent."

Or this:

"When he rose painfully the thrusting forward of a skinny groping hand deformed by gouty swellings suggested the effort of a moribund murderer summoning all of his remaining strength for a last stab."

Conrad begins Chapter 3 by having one of his characters make this statement, "...All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify is to take away its character of complexity-- it is to destroy it." and he quite clearly uses this text to present a vastly complex view of London, if the ugliness therein can provide a decent measure.

The book is fascinating and intelligent and I think it would resonate with today's readers loudly and clearly, especially in our current political context, where there is no doubt that the actions of the U.S. government are motivated purely by self-interest and a lust for power. Not to mention the fact that it has the structure of a political thriller and the action is compelling and exciting.
I feel a little silly saying that I would recommend this book because it is a modern classic, and thousands of people before me have confirmed it's worth with more authority and intelligence, but I do recommend it wholeheartedly. It is a really good read.(less)

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Dec 23, 2012 Jonfaith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My best friend Joel has a friend Bob who teaches at Rutgers. Nearly a decade ago, before becoming a scholarly expert on Borat, he stated that in terms of literature he wasn't going to bother with anything written later than 1920; what was the point, he'd quip? I admired his pluck. While I'm not sure he still ascribes to such. Well, for a couple of weeks I adhered to the goal. There have been many goals with a similar history: sigh. This was my first effort and what an amazing novel it is.

It is...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Ever since 9/11 there have been many a reference to Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, which has piqued my interest. I saw a cheap copy and picked it up recently and read it. I've read a couple of Conrad novels before (The Hear of Darkness and Lord Jim), but it has been a long time. The 19th century pacing that requires time to introduce and flesh out the main characters and set up the action. In this novel it takes almost 2/3 of the novel to achieve this goal, despite the fact that the novel is...more Ever since 9/11 there have been many a reference to Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, which has piqued my interest. I saw a cheap copy and picked it up recently and read it. I've read a couple of Conrad novels before (The Hear of Darkness and Lord Jim), but it has been a long time. The 19th century pacing that requires time to introduce and flesh out the main characters and set up the action. In this novel it takes almost 2/3 of the novel to achieve this goal, despite the fact that the novel is based on a simple newspaper clipping about a bombing gone bad. After that the plot runs much more smoothly and quickly. However, most of the characters are largely unsympathetic from the diplomats to the police and anarchists. There's a good comic scene at the embassy where Mr. Valdmir gives it to his spy Mr. Verloc. The menacing Professor is the character that has been most referred to in these dangerous times due to his steadfast fanaticism. He goes about with an explosive device attached to him just in case of an emergency:

And the incorruptible Professor walked too, averting his eyes from the odious multitude of mankind. He had no future. He disdained it . He was a force. His thoughts ceased the images of ruin and destruction. He walked frail, insignificant, shabby, miserable- and terrible in the simplicity of his idea calling madness and despair to the regeneration of the world. Nobody looked at him. He passed on unsuspected and deadly, like a pest in the street full of men.

Espionage gives way to domestic tragedy in the end. But the most interesting aspect of this novel for me lies in the origin the fact that the west has been dealing with terrorists for more than 100 years. In the after word, Conrad refers to the dynamite crisis of the 1880s. It's hard to imagine that this novel was shocking in its day. It is also well-known that Graham Green was a admirer of Conrad and was influenced by this novel when writing his own espionage novels and has been said to have used the Assistant Police Chief as a model for some of his own characters. It wasn't an easy read, but there were some excellent passages.

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Jul 31, 2012 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, classics, rws-summer-2012, 5-star-reads

First, I might be rating this wrong. It might be only 4 stars, but I'm pretty sure this is a very memorable read and have bumped it accordingly.

I love Conrad's writing style. There was so much packed into each sentence and paragraph.

And a peculiarly London sun--against which nothing could be said except that it looked bloodshot--glorified all this by its stare. It hung at a moderate elevation above Hyde Park Corner with an air of punctual and benign vigilance. The very pavement under Mr. Verloc

...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bryan Johnson

Shelves: third-thursday-bookgroup

Trying to decide if you “liked” a book can become a complicated process. Oh, not for some books. Some books catch you quickly and slyly sink in and mingle with your reality and whisper to you during the day when you are supposed to be working or driving or running. But there are some just plain stubborn books; books that almost seem to be daring you to put them down and move on to something else. Conrad’s The Secret Agent affected me that way. I read the Introduction, the select Bibliography, th...more Trying to decide if you “liked” a book can become a complicated process. Oh, not for some books. Some books catch you quickly and slyly sink in and mingle with your reality and whisper to you during the day when you are supposed to be working or driving or running. But there are some just plain stubborn books; books that almost seem to be daring you to put them down and move on to something else. Conrad’s The Secret Agent affected me that way. I read the Introduction, the select Bibliography, the Chronology and the Author’s preface and was very intrigued. I loved learning about the parallels in the story with the events in the author’s life. I liked seeing what historical events were taking place during the time Conrad was working in the Belgian Congo. I enjoyed reading about how the author came up with the idea for the story: Someone had attempted to blow up the Greenwich Observatory and instead blew himself to bits. And a friend of Conrad’s observed: “Oh, that fellow was half an idiot. His sister committed suicide afterwards.”

The Secret Agent is a man called Mr. Verloc. He’s married a woman who looks after her invalid mother and her “not quite right” brother. Winnie Verlock has settled for this existence. Her husband runs a store that sells male potency pills and soft porn. He doesn’t do much business, but Winnie asks no questions and tolerates life. Suddenly her life is disrupted when an officer comes to the house with a cloth with their address written on it which was taken from the body that was blown into a million bits and pieces and had to be collected with a shovel after being disintegrated by a bomb which was intended for the Greenwich Observatory. Her brother is missing and it dawns on her that her brother was wearing the coat which had the cloth address sewn into it. Her husband is responsible for the murder of her brother.

It’s a pretty simple, straightforward story and one that shouldn’t take too long to tell. But after we meet Winnie, and Adolf and Stevie and Mr. Vladimir we have to have conversation after conversation between Mr. Verloc, the secret agent, and the First Secretary of the Embassy and Mr. Vladimir and other shady characters and I’d find myself very disengaged and instead of escaping from reality with my book I’d be sorting out some work entanglement or planning dinner or (worse than anything) silently singing a small inane segment of some pop tune. I found I didn’t care if this was one of the first books about a terrorist act. The whole engaging conversation that had occurred earlier in the book about how anarchists should make it clear that they are “determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation” by “directing [their:] blows at something outside the ordinary passions of humanity” which had intrigued me so much in the beginning suddenly was forgotten and I cared so much more about the split-end I had just spotted or who was driving by in that loud car. In short, the book became very tedious and I lost any concern for the characters or about the outcome.

But then I’d find myself thinking about The Secret Agent during the day. I’d wonder about Winnie’s earlier boyfriend, the butcher, whose father refused to let him marry Winnie because she came as a package with an invalid mother and a half-wit brother. I'd try to decide if I thought Stevie was autistic. Or I’d stumble on a sentence like this:

He paused, and a snarl lifting his moustaches above a gleam of white teeth gave him the expression of a reflective beast, not very dangerous – a slow beast with a sleek head, gloomier than a seal, and with a husky voice.

And I’d much rather have that sentence bouncing around in my head than have the partial chorus to some Kate Perry song. Gloomier than a seal! Man I love that phrase! I’m almost tempted to give the dang book 4 stars just because of that seal reference. But then, no, I can’t, I do have too intense a memory of barely getting through 2 paragraphs before my eyes began to shut and my conscience thought started merging with that of the dream world and I’ll stay with a three star rating. But I will recommend that you read this 1907 book on political terrorism.
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Jun 28, 2008 Rashaan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like his fellow genius scribes, E. Bronte and Dostoevsky, Joseph Conrad plunges us into the dark Nietzschean swamps of the human soul. He dares to look into the abyss and unflinchingly reaches in, grasping the monsters within us. With his adept hands, in the blazing light of his vision and words, Conrad holds us up to ourselves.

Winne Verloc, like Kurtz, is vividly cast. She is a white, hot flash of brilliance. Conrad depicts her in crystal clear pitch. She seems to be drawn from Ophelia, innoce...more

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Dec 25, 2007 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone not afraid

First, I hate Conrad as a matter of principle. Nostromo made my mind vomit uncontrollably... And don't get me started on Heart of Darkness...

The Secret Agent, however, is unique among Conrad's "work." First of all, the cynicism is directed not just at one or two groups but the entire culture of the western world and the many flawed sub-cultures springing from it. Each group has an anti-hero that you find yourself rooting for one moment and rooting for another character to catch him the next...

Th...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Dave/Maggie Bean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-and-irish-lit

Conrad’s one of my favorite authors, and has been for a very long time. Whatever his detractors may say of him, his insight into human nature was almost frighteningly keen. This multi-layered novel examines opportunism, corruption, sh*t-stirring, fear mongering, nihilism, and the impotent desperation of the habitual malcontent. Especially relevant in the “post 9/11 world.”

One of Conrad’s bleakest, most claustrophobic novels (although Under Western Eyes certainly comes close), The Secret Agent i...more

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Sep 01, 2010 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've always associated Conrad's novel The Secret Agent with Alfred Hitchcock's movie version, Sabotage, which I enjoyed. It's not surprising, though, that Conrad's novel is more thoughtful. Conrad spends much time analyzing the character of Adolf Verloc, his family, the terrorists, and the police. It's slow-paced compared to today's thrillers, but still has a couple scenes that shocked readers a century ago. Also, Conrad uses an interesting mix of narrative techniques, putting one major event "o...more

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Nov 12, 2008 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I hadn't "freed" myself from the fetters of public education I would have come to this gem a lot earlier on. As it happened, sometime during my eternal formal education, a direct superior of mine mentioned reading Conrad's sea stories and I so I tried them. I wasn't in the mood for sailing but noticed he had written this spy story novel. (Like a lot of people I know, I wish I was a spy on alternate Tuesday's of months with 31 days in them.) Even I found more in this book than just a detective...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Mel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction

I wouldn't have picked up this book to read on my own but it was this month's book for Bibliogoth (the goth reading group here in London). I've not read any of Joseph Conrad's other books, though I do want to read "Heart of Darkness". When I picked it up I was very excited to see that he had dedicated it to H G Wells, for all the books of his that I loved. So I was expecting to enjoy it a lot. I was a little dissapointed. I found it quite hard to visualise, and the fact that the story kept going...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Jenni Wickham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a superb seminal work well deserving of its iconic status. The characters are so deeply cast that the writer draws you in and you actually feel their emotions. The scenery of London in the era is exquisitely detailed that the picture forms in your mind like from an artist's brush stroke with every sentence. The socio political environment of the era is explored and explained in amazing detail from various viewpoints - that of the socialist-labour movement, that of the anarchists, that of...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in October 2004.

Almost since the English novel's origins, there have been writers who wanted to create literary versions of the melodramatic journalism which has been part of British life since the days of the Tudors. Dickens is perhaps the most notable example, with campaigning novels such as Nicholas Nickleby. The Secret Agent is very much part of this tradition, but takes it in a new direction: this is an important milestone towards the establishment of th...more Originally published on my blog here in October 2004.

Almost since the English novel's origins, there have been writers who wanted to create literary versions of the melodramatic journalism which has been part of British life since the days of the Tudors. Dickens is perhaps the most notable example, with campaigning novels such as Nicholas Nickleby. The Secret Agent is very much part of this tradition, but takes it in a new direction: this is an important milestone towards the establishment of the literary end of the thriller genre, obvious successors including novels like Brighton Rock.

In the thirty years or so before the First World War, anarchist outrages were in the news in much the same way as terrorism is today. Sensationalist writing was rife, some of which was about as grounded in reality as the wildest ranting that can be found on today's Internet. The parallels extend to an equivalent of the 9/11 attacks - the assassination of the Russian Emperor Alexander II in 1881 (and attacks on other royalty). Hopefully there will not be a second parallel event to match the effective ending of the hysteria with another outrage - the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinant, followed by global war.

Conrad was no stranger to sensationalist plots; just think of Lord Jim, or Heart of Darkness (the latter perhaps more shocking now, with its story of the dehumanisation of whte traders in colonial Africa, than it would have been at the time). The Secret Agent goes further, and also incidentally one of the few Conrad stories to make virtually no references to the sea.

The central character is the shady Mr Verloc; proprietor of a seedy shop atmospherically described in the novel's opening pages. For years, he has been supplementing the inadequate income provided by his business - a foreign embassy has been funding him to organise an anarchist cell in London. As a lazy man, this ideally suits him, as failing to make an impact is just proof of how difficult his allotted task actually is. Then, a change at the Embassy means that Verloc is given an ultimatum: produce results, or receive no more money. The target selected is the Greenwich Observatory, as symbol of the fetish of the age, science.

The Secret Agent isn't really about its plot, but about style and character (the most interesting being Verloc's wife). I've also found it the most accessible and appealing of Conrad's novels. It is less complex psychologically than Lord Jim or The Heart of Darkness, both of which are about how men's characters change; Winnie Verloc does not develop gradually but suddenly turns into a different person at the climactic point of the novel, when she makes a dramatic discovery.

The Secret Agent is, as far as I am concerned, the ideal introduction to Conrad's writing (it was the first writing of his that I read); and it has remained my favourite among his novels.(less)

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Feb 05, 2013 Peter Fortune rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-classics

The Secret Agent –- Joseph Conrad –- 1907

Conrad’s social parody of anarchism, British bureaucracy, and English indolence in 19th century London anticipates the anarchism of the near future and mimics that wonderful commentary on early 19th century Russia by Gogol (Dead Souls). Conrad writes with sly humor about Mr. Verloc, member of an anarchist group and a “secret agent” for a European power (Russia?). Verloc has been called on the carpet by his spymaster who tells him that though he was hired...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first Joseph Conrad book I've read and I'm a fan. Conrad's style is impressively rich whilst not overly fussy or ornamental - he is an exquisite storyteller and doesn't let language tricks get in the way of narrative (although he does have a curious habit of conspicuously using an eccentric adjective a few times in one page to describe the very same thing).

The book is deliciously pessimistic. Stevie's obsessive spiral scribblings spell a portent for what's to come. He gives his pocke...more

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Jan 16, 2013 J A Green rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The beginning and the end of the book are absolutely stunning. In the middle -- after the main event has already occured but while we're waiting for the reveal -- it falls down slightly. However, Conrad's writing is at all points stunning; he manages to come up with the most incredible turns of phrase - as when we describes a London street is like an aquarium from which the water has been drained. His observations of psychology are as powerful as those of Dostoevsky, and indeed the later part of...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Aaron Arnold rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2012, politics

A classic novel of terrorism, I picked it up on a high school friend's recommendation. I hadn't read any Conrad since our 12th grade English class had included Heart of Darkness. You're guaranteed to hate most books you're forced to read for school, having to wring all sorts of contrived themes and subtexts out of your mandatory tomes, but I enjoyed Heart of Darkness, and of course the movie Apocalypse Now, which we also watched because why not.

I didn't really dig The Secret Agent quite as much...more A classic novel of terrorism, I picked it up on a high school friend's recommendation. I hadn't read any Conrad since our 12th grade English class had included Heart of Darkness. You're guaranteed to hate most books you're forced to read for school, having to wring all sorts of contrived themes and subtexts out of your mandatory tomes, but I enjoyed Heart of Darkness, and of course the movie Apocalypse Now, which we also watched because why not.

I didn't really dig The Secret Agent quite as much though, a least at first. The main terrorism plot is the highlight: Conrad is very adept at creating a terrorist group, the Future of the Proletariat, which is both plausible in its aims and actions, and ridiculous in how cartoonish the individual members Verloc, Yundt, Ossipon, and Michaelis are. I'm positive real terrorist groups have their members who strongly resemble the buffoons in the FOP, and I'm sure that their meetings are just as full of irritating speeches. Achmed, stop clowning around, we're trying to finish Phase XVII of Operation Death to the Great Satan! Similarly, the police working against them also have their own personalities and personal issues, and real counter-terrorism work is probably just as full of politicking and feuding.

However, Conrad put in an annoying subplot about Stevie, the main character Verloc's wife's brother, who is autistic and does nothing interesting for the entire first half of the book. It was only later that he became important, and even though his only real relevant action happened offscreen, the way the Verloc "family" dealt with it was pretty interesting. Though Conrad is a little too verbose sometimes, the psychological interaction between Verloc and his wife Winnie was great, as was the ending part with Winnie and Comrade Ossipon. Very satisfying ending overall. Since the book was based on a very similar real-life attempted act of terrorism, it's only fitting in a way that it ended up being a favorite of Ted Kaczynski. Ted was smart though - wives will only mess you up! Conrad knew best all along.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Dhaval rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Disclosure: Joseph Conrad is one of my favorite writers, and so I am naturally biased. I really enjoyed this novel, and although the novel started off a bit slow, it quickly picked up the pace. The story takes place in England at the turn of the century with anarchist terrorizing the European populace. It is essentially about a domesticated secret agent in England who is also an anarchist planning to commit a terrorist act to further the cause of anarchy. But it's also more than that, as Conrad...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My first Joseph Conrad. Like Clarice Lispector, he was born in Ukraine but was raised elsewhere (Poland, in Conrad's case).

The impression this book left me is that Conrad wasn't only a gifted storyteller with deep psychological insights, but he was also the type who can erupt with melodious and poetic language even in such trifles as a cabman looking at some pieces of silver given to him by a passenger as payment for a ride:

"The cabman looked at the pieces of silver, which, appearing very minut...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Angela Young rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read The Secret Agent with a book group. I might not ever have discovered it but for them and I was - naively perhaps - amazed to read a novel about an anarchist plot to blow up Greenwich Observatory in the late nineteenth century. Could it have been Conrad's practical knowledge of the sea that drew him to this subject matter?

The event, see here: http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronom... was real, but Conrad's story about the event, who did it and why, is invented. Apparently the group's reason...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Matt Gough rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 07, 2011 Tocotin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, early-20th-century

The story starts off slowly but in an intriguing way, so I read through long and winded descriptions of people and places hoping to see how it all unfolds. The characters aren't particularly likable, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for them - all of them. They just weren't able to understand each other, or even to successfully communicate with each other, and of course the tragical outcome of the whole affair was not to be avoided.

I'm not sure if it can be classified as a spy novel, because it...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Parksy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enjoyable book - fairly quick, but had to be patient with it.

The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad published in 1907. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals largely with the life of Mr. Verloc and his job as a spy.[1:] The Secret Agent is also notable as it is one of Conrad's later political novels, which move away from his typical tales of seafaring. The novel deals broadly with the notions of anarchism, espionage, and terrorism.[2:] It portrays anarchist or revoluti...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Nick Sweeney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another example of JC's vivid, expert storytelling. As with Nostromo, the spark of the story hinges on a casual conversation he had with an acquaintance; they were discussing an anarchist bombing in Greenwich in the late 1990s, and a chance remark about the hapless bomber got Conrad thinking.

First off, it's an engaging look at the conspiracists of Europe in the late 1890s: revolutionaries, and anarchists competed with one another for the 'purest' approach to changing the status quo, and were, in...more Another example of JC's vivid, expert storytelling. As with Nostromo, the spark of the story hinges on a casual conversation he had with an acquaintance; they were discussing an anarchist bombing in Greenwich in the late 1990s, and a chance remark about the hapless bomber got Conrad thinking.

First off, it's an engaging look at the conspiracists of Europe in the late 1890s: revolutionaries, and anarchists competed with one another for the 'purest' approach to changing the status quo, and were, in a way that is all too familiar to us nowadays, very disdainful of one another's politics, actions (and lack of it) and successes. On the other side are ranged the establishments - of several European powers, although the story is set in London - eager to keep that status quo. In the middle is the bourgeoisie and, as ever, JC reserves, via the mouths of his characters, a special kind of invective for them; it is they who allow wholesale exploitation to escalate, in the hopes of becoming fully-fledged members of the exploitative classes at the top of the pile.

JC's characters are all so well drawn, and with great economy. From the main cast of wannabe anarchists and cops to humble coachmen - even the coachman's horse - and beat coppers, none are superfluous, none are cardboard cut-outs in the background. JC also paints a fantastically clear picture of the London of the time; well-to-do side streets, foreign embassies, government buildings, the Strand, Soho, Greenwich, all pictured in a way that populates them and makes them come to life.

The anarchists are at times scary, like the self-styled 'Professor', who carries explosives packed around him at all times to avoid arrest, but are mostly rather pathetic, men who have drifted into revolutionary anarchism because there is nothing else in their lives that can be as vague, or that will allow them to posture without any visible progress. Yundt is a near-senile old philosopher, who can barely move without the aid of a landlady who keeps him, Michaelis, who has been imprisoned for twenty years, is so grotesquely small and fat that he can hardly move, and writes a memoir full of strange delusions, and Ossipon lives off gullible women and, though mockingly described as 'robust' has little nerve for anything, afraid of everything if it occurs to him.

None are more pathetic than the main character, smutty shopkeeper Adolf Verloc. Born in England, despite his name, but having spent much of his life in France, including a five-year spell in jail for his inept spying, he is very much at the mercy of the times he is living in. He has some good characteristics, of course - most of JC's characters, even the worst of them, do - which makes his inevitable descent prompt at least some sympathy. However, these are eclipsed finally by his rather callous treatment of his wife's brother, and by his ridiculous misreading of how his wife will react to his actions. As in Nostromo, the narrative describes Verloc as a man of generally good qualities, with the weakness of vanity - wanting to be loved for what he was.

I very much like and admire JC's treatment of Stevie, Verloc's brother in law. Stevie has some kind of autism - the exact nature of it isn't stated. Though the other characters condemn it - with Stevie described, variously, as a 'half-wit', 'idjut' and a 'degenerate', among other things - Conrad has a compassion rare in authors of his time, in not demeaning Stevie via his omniscient narrative, where it is made clear that Stevie may be autistic, but also that he is 'not a madman'. On the contrary, he has a feeling for his fellow men that is commendable and, ultimately, heartbreaking, both for him and the reader at times. I think his portrayal is positive and sympathetic. The fact that he is so harshly exploited in the story seems all the worse because of this.

Women are gradually pushed to the fore in the novel, but are partly described through the male characters' general misogyny, described variously as scheming or just outright dangerous. The men have a deeply disguised fear of them, brought out artfully in the narrative, and often with a knowing humour.

I've read this book before, and had it in the back of my mind as one of the best books I've ever read, and am loving it all over again now, on this second reading. I really recommend it as a fast-moving tale and written, as ever with Conrad, in great, flowing, beautiful prose.(less)

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Dec 17, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like much of Conrad's work, this is a dark book. The title character is an Englishman named Verlac working for a central European government (unnamed but the officials have German and Slavic names). His mission is to go underground among anarchists exiled in London (the bomb-throwing kind, though few of them actually get to that point) and to inform his employers whenever one of the anarchists is likely to mount an attack against the homeland. A change of personnel in the embassy, however, has p...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Jim Leckband rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A world where selfless revolutionary geniuses scheme for what they think is a better world but are thwarted by the tireless efforts of London's Finest?

Nope, a world where ineffectual "secret" agents are used by lazy Chief Inspectors to pad their arrest statistics and reputations. Where spies fronting as pornographers are too frightened of being cutoff from their monthly stipend that they have to *do* something, however ineffectual.

This novel has my vote of the first 20th Century novel. The natur...more A world where selfless revolutionary geniuses scheme for what they think is a better world but are thwarted by the tireless efforts of London's Finest?

Nope, a world where ineffectual "secret" agents are used by lazy Chief Inspectors to pad their arrest statistics and reputations. Where spies fronting as pornographers are too frightened of being cutoff from their monthly stipend that they have to *do* something, however ineffectual.

This novel has my vote of the first 20th Century novel. The naturalists and realists (Émile Zola, Theodore Dreiser) are commonly argued as the originators of the modern in that they tried to infuse their fictions with "life as it is lived". But at bottom I believe they had a romantic view of the ideal soul of man as good and honest and that society is preventing its realization. This is not the case in Conrad, and especially in "The Secret Agent".

The genius of "The Secret Agent" is that Conrad subverts the espionage/terror tale and makes it a tale of bureaucratic anomie. Nobody really believes in what they are doing (except for the insane "Professor" - the first portrayal in fiction of our esteemed real-life Dr. Strangelove - Edward Teller), but are filling in time as their roles dictate. What they are really passionate about is making sure their superiors don't catch them not doing their jobs. Is there anything more modern than that?

The novel is overwhelmingly ironical. The character of Stevie (a developmentally disabled teenager) is used as a metaphor for all our political plans and actions - whether anarchical or not. The Chief Inspector Heat character is wonderfully drawn. Conrad lets enough darkness show through that Inspector "Heat" is not hot at all, but very cold in using his spy network to further his career. Conrad uses our expectations of the jolly good competent detective against us when we finally realize that the Chief Inspector is not really doing any good.

The final irony is through the treatment of family. The secret agent's family is a farce - she married him not out of love but out of expediency and puts a blind Victorian eye to his failings and crimes. I don't think I am reading too much into conflating the ruin of Mrs. Verloc's family to what will happen to Queen Victoria's empire.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Christian Leonard Quale rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a random read from the "1001 books you should read before you die"-list, so I knew nothing about this book other than its title. I started reading, and from the start I really didn't like it. In fact, I actively disliked it. I found the first half of the book to be a muddled and messy blend of politics, social commentary, satire and attempts at humour. As standalone elements all of these would probably have held up, but the way in which they were blended together made the story confusing...more

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About Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.

Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard Bri...more

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Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

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