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The Secret Agent
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The Secret Agent - Background Information
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General Overview
In the only novel Joseph Conrad set in London, The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale communicates a profoundly ironic view of human affairs. The story is woven around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894 masterminded by Verloc, a Russian spy working for the police, and ostensibly a member of an anarchist group in Soho. While rooted in the Edwardian period, Conrad’s tale remains strikingly contemporary, with its depiction of Londoners gripped by fear of the terrorists living in their midst.
Because of its terrorism theme, it was one of the three works of literature most cited in the American media two weeks after the September 11 attacks.
Major Themes
Terrorism and anarchism
Terrorism and anarchism are intrinsic aspects of the novel, and are central to the plot. Verloc is employed by an agency which requires him to orchestrate terrorist activities, and several of the characters deal with terrorism in some way: Verloc's friends are all interested in an anarchistic political revolution, and the police are investigating anarchist motives behind the bombing of Greenwich.
Politics
The role of politics is paramount in the novel, as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organization. The plot to destroy Greenwich is in itself anarchistic. Vladimir asserts that the bombing "must be purely destructive" and that the anarchists who will be implicated as the architects of the explosion "should make it clear that [they] are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation."
However, the political form of anarchism is ultimately controlled in the novel: the only supposed politically motivated act is orchestrated by a secret government agency.
Historical Background
Conrad's character Stevie is based on the French anarchist, Martial Bourdin, who died gruesomely in Greenwich Park when the explosives he carried detonated prematurely. Bourdin's motives remain a mystery as does his intended target, which may have been the Greenwich Observatory.
The novel was written at a time when terrorist activity was increasing. There had been numerous dynamite attacks in both Europe and the US, as well as several assassinations of heads of state. Conrad also drew upon two persons specifically: Mikhail Bakunin and Prince Peter Kropotkin. Conrad used these two men in his "portrayal of the novel's anarchists".
Critical Reception
Initially, the novel fared poorly in the United Kingdom and the United States, selling only 3,076 copies between 1907 and 1914. The book fared slightly better in Britain, yet no more than 6,500 copies were printed before 1914. Although sales increased after 1914, it never sold more than modestly during Conrad's life. It was published to favorable reviews, most agreeing with the view of The Times Literary Supplement that it "increase[d] Conrad's reputation, already of the highest". However, there were detractors who criticized the novel's "unpleasant characters and subject". Country Life magazine called the story "indecent" and criticized Conrad's "often dense and elliptical style".
Critics have analyzed the role of terrorism in the novel. Patrick Reilly calls the novel "a terrorist text as well as a text about terrorism" due to Conrad's manipulation of chronology to allow the reader to comprehend the outcome of the bombing before the characters, thereby corrupting the traditional conception of time.
Adaptations
In 1936, The Secret Agent was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a film called Sabotage, with Oscar Homolka as Verloc and Sylvia Sidney as Mrs. Verloc.
In 1992, The novel was turned into a BBC miniseries starring Peter Capaldi and David Suchet.
A second TV miniseries, starring Toby Jones and Vicky McClure, was released in 2016.
There is also a 1996 film version starring Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, Gérard Depardieu, Robin Williams and Christian Bale.
Trivia
The Secret Agent influenced the Unabomber—Ted Kaczynski; he was a great fan and as an adolescent kept a copy at his bedside. He identified strongly with the character of "The Professor" and advised his family to read The Secret Agent to understand the character with whom he felt such an affinity. David Foster, the literary attributionist who assisted the FBI, said that Kaczynski "seem[ed] to have felt that his family could not understand him without reading Conrad".
Kaczynski's idolization of the character was due to the traits that they shared: disaffection, hostility toward the world, and being an aspiring anarchist. However, it did not stop at mere idolization. Kaczynski used "The Professor" as a source of inspiration and "fabricated sixteen exploding packages that detonated in various locations". After his capture, Kaczynski revealed to FBI agents that he had read the novel a dozen times, and had sometimes used "Conrad" as an alias. It was discovered that Kaczynski had used various formulations of Conrad's name – Conrad, Konrad, and Korzeniowski, Conrad's original surname – to sign himself into several hotels in Sacramento. As in his youth, Kaczynski retained a copy of The Secret Agent and kept it with him while living as a recluse in a hut in Montana.
Additional Reading:
PLEASE NOTE: these articles DO CONTAIN spoilers
londonfictions.com
The Secret Agent: a timely BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad'
Why Conrad’s The Secret Agent is the perfect novel for our time
Astronomers and The Anarchist Bomber
Sources
penguinrandomhouse.com and wikipedia.org
Nicely done Hope this is not the minimum standard for background.
Thanks for taking the time
I haven't done a full biography, but an interesting thing to note is that English was not Conrad's first language. He was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Poland and didn't become fluent in English until his 20's. He already knew several other languages, although he never liked school. He spent years at sea in the Merchant Marine and working for shipping companies, and most of his books take place at sea or in distant locales.
It may be relevant for this novel that Wikipedia says Conrad's father was a political activist and would-be revolutionary.