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An Anarchist
""An Anarchist"" is a short story written by Joseph Conrad, originally published in 1906. The story follows the character of Adolf Verloc, a middle-aged man living in London who is secretly involved in anarchist activities. Verloc runs a small shop that sells pornographic materials, but in reality, he is a spy for the Russian embassy and is tasked with carrying out a terrorist attack on Greenwich Observatory. As the story progresses, Verloc's personal life becomes intertwined with his political activities, and he struggles to balance his loyalty to the anarchist cause with his desire to protect his family. The story culminates in a tragic and violent climax as Verloc's plans are revealed and his world comes crashing down around him. ""An Anarchist"" is a thought-provoking exploration of political extremism and the consequences of radicalism. Conrad's vivid descriptions and complex characters make for a gripping read, and the story remains relevant today as we continue to grapple with issues of terrorism and political violence.The man's head and shoulders emerged above the deck, over which were scattered various tools of his trade and a few pieces of machinery. He was doing some repairs to the engines. At the sound of our footsteps he raised anxiously a grimy face with a pointed chin and a tiny fair moustache. What could be seen of his delicate features under the black smudges appeared to me wasted and livid in the greenish shade of the enormous tree spreading its foliage over the launch moored close to the bank.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
- GenresShort Stories
48 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1905
1 person is currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,176 books4,905 followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 26, 2022
Three Men in a Boat
This can be a symbol of light-heartedness and gentle humour, but if they have no dog with them and one of these men has pulled a gun on the other two in order to make them row, this turns into an ironic allegory of capitalist society, as seen by supporters of certain political views, its irony lying in the fact that the man with the gun is an anarchist against his will, or by mistake, or however you might want to put it.
Did Sergio Leone, whose The Good, the Bad and the Ugly gave us the trenchant phrase of there being two kinds of people in the world, read Joseph Conrad? If so, he might also have read Conrad’s short story The Anarchist, which was published in 1905 and which, once again, shows us the writer’s knack for using complicated narrative points of view. The story is told by a first-person narrator, who is a butterfly hunter and whose passion has taken him to an island that is owned by a producer of cattle beef extract. Here, he has taken lodgings with the manager of an estancia who tells him about the Anarchist, a man who, years ago, stranded on the island, and as the man was a fitter by profession and as it was obvious that he was also an escaped convict, the manager decided to spread the rumour that he had been imprisoned for anarchism, thereby making it impossible for the fitter to get any other employment but with him. Interestingly, the manager justifies this kind of roundabout blackmailing by acting in the interest of his company, a phrase he also uses when he charges our narrator a considerable fee for his stay on the island. We already see that when a manager does something he may not be particularly proud of, he can find comfort and consolation in saying that he did it for the interest of the company he represents.
When the narrator and the Anarchist have struck up a friendship, the latter tells him the story of how he fell in with anarchism without really intending it, namely by getting drunk on his 21st birthday and, carried away by spirits rather than spirit, vociferating anarchist slogans, which led to his being arrested for attempting sedition. From that moment on, he can never regain a foothold in his old circles and nor get a regular job again and finds himself dependent on other anarchists, whose creed he does not really share.
Unlike other people, I can often see a lot of humour, of a special kind, in Conrad’s writings, and An Anarchist most certainly abounds in bitter irony: First of all, there is this situation in the boat later in the story when the eponymous hero has taken on the role of the boss and forces his fellow-anarchists to row for their lives. As I have already said, one could take this constellation as a crude allegory of what socialists regard as the essence of bourgeois society. Fuelled by his thirst for revenge, our hero really enjoys his own power and the mortal fear it inspires his fellow-travellers with. This, however, is just the most obvious element of irony – another one is more subtle, and it can be found in the strategy employed by the manager, who uses the label of “Anarchist”, one of the most deadly opponents of capitalism, to serve the needs of capitalism, namely to make the hero a slave labourer, paid in kind and not in money, for his company. This shows the all-pervading and perfidious power of capitalism, which is even able to make use of its enemies in order to strike a convenient bargain. Just think of all those T-shirts with the stylized likeness of one of communism’s mass murderers and terrorists, Che Guevara. Do you think the profit derived from their sales was donated to the “good cause” by the companies producing and trading them? I have always wondered at capitalism’s ability to profit from spawning anti-capitalist devotional objects which were in high demand amongst people socialized in and pampered by the capitalist system and who, while romanticizing communism, would definitely have another think coming if they ever had to live in a totalitarian regime like those set up in communist countries.
Of course, Conrad could not know about a thing like this but it is still interesting that the villain of his story, the manager, makes use of a strategy which is similar to the one I have described above. Still, the story is not pro-capitalist, as you might have guessed. Our narrator also has a lot of cynicism in store for the manager, who is described as a bullying braggart, and at one point he gives the following, tongue-in-cheek excuse for the manager’s money-grubbing attitude:
With An Anarchist, you are not only in for Conrad’s bitter humour, but also for a very swiftly-moving adventure story.
This can be a symbol of light-heartedness and gentle humour, but if they have no dog with them and one of these men has pulled a gun on the other two in order to make them row, this turns into an ironic allegory of capitalist society, as seen by supporters of certain political views, its irony lying in the fact that the man with the gun is an anarchist against his will, or by mistake, or however you might want to put it.
Did Sergio Leone, whose The Good, the Bad and the Ugly gave us the trenchant phrase of there being two kinds of people in the world, read Joseph Conrad? If so, he might also have read Conrad’s short story The Anarchist, which was published in 1905 and which, once again, shows us the writer’s knack for using complicated narrative points of view. The story is told by a first-person narrator, who is a butterfly hunter and whose passion has taken him to an island that is owned by a producer of cattle beef extract. Here, he has taken lodgings with the manager of an estancia who tells him about the Anarchist, a man who, years ago, stranded on the island, and as the man was a fitter by profession and as it was obvious that he was also an escaped convict, the manager decided to spread the rumour that he had been imprisoned for anarchism, thereby making it impossible for the fitter to get any other employment but with him. Interestingly, the manager justifies this kind of roundabout blackmailing by acting in the interest of his company, a phrase he also uses when he charges our narrator a considerable fee for his stay on the island. We already see that when a manager does something he may not be particularly proud of, he can find comfort and consolation in saying that he did it for the interest of the company he represents.
When the narrator and the Anarchist have struck up a friendship, the latter tells him the story of how he fell in with anarchism without really intending it, namely by getting drunk on his 21st birthday and, carried away by spirits rather than spirit, vociferating anarchist slogans, which led to his being arrested for attempting sedition. From that moment on, he can never regain a foothold in his old circles and nor get a regular job again and finds himself dependent on other anarchists, whose creed he does not really share.
Unlike other people, I can often see a lot of humour, of a special kind, in Conrad’s writings, and An Anarchist most certainly abounds in bitter irony: First of all, there is this situation in the boat later in the story when the eponymous hero has taken on the role of the boss and forces his fellow-anarchists to row for their lives. As I have already said, one could take this constellation as a crude allegory of what socialists regard as the essence of bourgeois society. Fuelled by his thirst for revenge, our hero really enjoys his own power and the mortal fear it inspires his fellow-travellers with. This, however, is just the most obvious element of irony – another one is more subtle, and it can be found in the strategy employed by the manager, who uses the label of “Anarchist”, one of the most deadly opponents of capitalism, to serve the needs of capitalism, namely to make the hero a slave labourer, paid in kind and not in money, for his company. This shows the all-pervading and perfidious power of capitalism, which is even able to make use of its enemies in order to strike a convenient bargain. Just think of all those T-shirts with the stylized likeness of one of communism’s mass murderers and terrorists, Che Guevara. Do you think the profit derived from their sales was donated to the “good cause” by the companies producing and trading them? I have always wondered at capitalism’s ability to profit from spawning anti-capitalist devotional objects which were in high demand amongst people socialized in and pampered by the capitalist system and who, while romanticizing communism, would definitely have another think coming if they ever had to live in a totalitarian regime like those set up in communist countries.
Of course, Conrad could not know about a thing like this but it is still interesting that the villain of his story, the manager, makes use of a strategy which is similar to the one I have described above. Still, the story is not pro-capitalist, as you might have guessed. Our narrator also has a lot of cynicism in store for the manager, who is described as a bullying braggart, and at one point he gives the following, tongue-in-cheek excuse for the manager’s money-grubbing attitude:
”I admitted that, for a company spending fifty thousand pounds every year in advertising, the strictest economy was obviously necessary.”
With An Anarchist, you are not only in for Conrad’s bitter humour, but also for a very swiftly-moving adventure story.
February 6, 2017
2.5 STARS
Όλη η ιστορία έχει να κάνει με την σύμπραξη χωρίς διαμαρτυρία στις συμβάσεις του κοινωνικού βίου και όσα συνεπάγεται, τα οποία οδηγούν σε βύθισμα και μωροπιστία που οδηγούν στον υπερκαταναλωτισμό ( υπέροχο το κομμάτι για τη διαφήμιση, σκωπτικό και εντατικό, ωστόσο ελλιπές ), ή σε μια ανόθευτη και μη αντιληπτή οργή που μοιάζει με απάθεια και παράλληλα όμως ορατή σ' εκείνους που ξέρουν τι ψάχνουν, τους φανερούς δηλαδή, το πλήθος που βγαίνει μπροστά χειραγωγημένο.
Παρότι, ο Κόνραντ είναι αφηγηματικό ταλέντο και με κράτησε να διαβάσω όλες τις σελίδες κι ενώ το θέμα του παρουσιάζεται απλά, επειδή στην πραγματικότητα αυτά συμβαίνουν αλλά όχι εξόφθαλμα, αισθάνθηκα μια στενοχώρια με το ύφος και τον τρόπο που πιστεύω πως άφησε κενά.
Όλη η ιστορία έχει να κάνει με την σύμπραξη χωρίς διαμαρτυρία στις συμβάσεις του κοινωνικού βίου και όσα συνεπάγεται, τα οποία οδηγούν σε βύθισμα και μωροπιστία που οδηγούν στον υπερκαταναλωτισμό ( υπέροχο το κομμάτι για τη διαφήμιση, σκωπτικό και εντατικό, ωστόσο ελλιπές ), ή σε μια ανόθευτη και μη αντιληπτή οργή που μοιάζει με απάθεια και παράλληλα όμως ορατή σ' εκείνους που ξέρουν τι ψάχνουν, τους φανερούς δηλαδή, το πλήθος που βγαίνει μπροστά χειραγωγημένο.
Παρότι, ο Κόνραντ είναι αφηγηματικό ταλέντο και με κράτησε να διαβάσω όλες τις σελίδες κι ενώ το θέμα του παρουσιάζεται απλά, επειδή στην πραγματικότητα αυτά συμβαίνουν αλλά όχι εξόφθαλμα, αισθάνθηκα μια στενοχώρια με το ύφος και τον τρόπο που πιστεύω πως άφησε κενά.
February 16, 2023
Τί βιβλίο !!!
January 21, 2019
Ένας κατ' ευφημισμόν αναρχικός. Στην ουσία η μόνη σχέση του Αναρχικού από τη Βαρκελώνη με την αναρχική Θεωρία είναι ότι έτσι τον αποκαλεί το σκουλήκι ο εργοδότης του ώστε να του "χαλάσει" το όνομα και να μην μπορεί να φύγει από την δουλεψη του. Όλο το άλλο βιβλίο μία μπούρδα, όσο για το σημείο όπου ο αναρχικός ΔΕΝ συμμετέχει στην εξέγερση των φυλακισμένων λέγοντας μάλιστα πως οι ανθρωποφυλακες δεν του έκαναν τίποτα, μίας και κάνουν απλά τη δουλειά τους.
Δεν ξέρω γιατί μου το πρότειναν τόσο με τέτοιο ενθουσιασμό τόσα πολλά άτομα. Ένας αναρχικός που δεν αναγνώριζει το σύμβολο της εξουσίας του δεσμοφυλακα... ακόμη έχω ξινισμενα μούτρα. Επίσης το μέγεθος της γραμματοσειράς είναι 15-16 και δεν καταλαβαίνω γιατί.
0, 5 / 5 και πολύ λέω
Δεν ξέρω γιατί μου το πρότειναν τόσο με τέτοιο ενθουσιασμό τόσα πολλά άτομα. Ένας αναρχικός που δεν αναγνώριζει το σύμβολο της εξουσίας του δεσμοφυλακα... ακόμη έχω ξινισμενα μούτρα. Επίσης το μέγεθος της γραμματοσειράς είναι 15-16 και δεν καταλαβαίνω γιατί.
0, 5 / 5 και πολύ λέω
September 30, 2009
This overly simplified tale paints a rude portrait of anarchists as terrible boogy-men, and isn't really worth reading except to better understand what a jackass Joseph Conrad is.
October 27, 2015
It was decent to start. Then a boat was involved and I became lost.
February 6, 2023
Interesting short read
May 4, 2014
Very brief work hinging on the characters of three unlikely inhabitants of a cattle station. The "reveal" of the Anarchist's backstory isn't built up to be much of a surprise - more a mild curiosity. The drama stems from knowing that all the primary characters are morally compromised in some form. With a century's removal from the controversy and outrage of anarchist bombings, the political elements are less of a commentary and more a simple plot device to get a man into the situation the Anarchist finds himself in.
July 23, 2024
INNEHÅLL
Berättelsen utspelar sig i London i slutet av 1800-talet.
RECENSION
Spännande. Tragiskt att anarkismen i början av förra seklet och än i dag för många är som lika med individualism, våld och terrorism. Då för hundra år sedan så till den grad att Conrad måste ursäkta sig i förordet att han över huvud taget har skrivit en bok om en anarkist.
Lite kul att en av scenerna i boken utspelar sig i Greenwich, London. Där hamnade jag av en slump med min son under resa i början av millenniet. Vi såg dock inget institut eller liknande bara en tunnelbanestation och vanliga gator.
Berättelsen utspelar sig i London i slutet av 1800-talet.
RECENSION
Spännande. Tragiskt att anarkismen i början av förra seklet och än i dag för många är som lika med individualism, våld och terrorism. Då för hundra år sedan så till den grad att Conrad måste ursäkta sig i förordet att han över huvud taget har skrivit en bok om en anarkist.
Lite kul att en av scenerna i boken utspelar sig i Greenwich, London. Där hamnade jag av en slump med min son under resa i början av millenniet. Vi såg dock inget institut eller liknande bara en tunnelbanestation och vanliga gator.
February 6, 2014
Well written story. Quite neutral politically, if anything it's against capitalism. When the capitalist in the story says, "I hate the cowardly bomb-throwing brutes," the author is clearly ridiculing him, I don't see how it's possible to believe that to be Conrad's personal opinion.
May 3, 2021
Very dated.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews