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Joseph Conrad's dark satire on English society

The Secret Agent is widely considered one of Conrad's greatest literary achievements. Set in gloomy 1886 London, the novel follows the life of Alfred Verdoc, a Soho shop owner and secret agent who is a member of a largely ineffectual anarchist cell. During a meeting at an unnamed... Read Full Overview

"In THE SECRET AGENT Conrad describes seedy London neighborhoods; a cell of refugees and immigrants who plot a revolution behind a dingy storefront; a fanatical expert in explosives who rides the bus clutching his detonator and threatening to blow himself up; an explosion that... Read Full Overview

Inspired by an attempt in 1894 to blow up London's Greenwich Observatory, The Secret Agent is the unsurpassed original of the long tradition of espionage thrillers that explore the confused motives at the heart of terrorism. Published in 1907, Joseph Conrad's novel was... Read Full Overview

Mr Verloc, the secret agent, keeps a shop in London's Soho where he lives with his wife Winnie, her infirm mother, and her idiot brother, Stevie. When Verloc is reluctantly involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory things go disastrously wrong, and what... Read Full Overview

This Norton Critical Edition includes:
- The first English book edition of the novel (1907), accompanied by explanatory footnotes.
- Four illustrations.
- Contemporary sources that informed Conrad's writing of the novel, including newspaper accounts of the "Greenwich... Read Full Overview

Adolf Verloc is working as a spy in London, when he's recruited to commit a terrorist act that could endanger the lives of countless citizens. It's a professional decision that has an unexpected impact on his personal life.

Adolf Verloc lives in London and runs... Read Full Overview

This chillingly prophetic examination of terrorism by the author of Heart of Darkness is the literary precursor to the espionage thrillers of Graham Greene and John Le Carre. Inspired by an actual attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, The Secret Agent portrays the world... Read Full Overview

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.

The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad. The novel deals broadly with the notions of anarchism, espionage, and terrorism. Because of its terrorist theme, The Secret Agent has been noted as "one of the three works of literature most cited in the American media"... Read Full Overview

A classic and thrilling tale of espionage and murder, Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent" was first published in 1907. Set in London in 1886, the novel centers around Mr. Adolf Verloc, a spy who owns a small shop and lives with his wife Winnie, her mother and her mentally disabled... Read Full Overview

Mr Verloc, going out in the morning, left his shop nominally in charge of his brother-in-law. It could be done, because there was very little business at any time, and practically none at all before the evening. Mr Verloc cared but little about his ostensible business. And, moreover,... Read Full Overview

The Secret Agent is the unsurpassed ancestor of a long series of twentieth-century novels andfilms which explore the confused motives that lie at the heart of political terrorism. In its use of powerful psychological insight to intensify narrative suspense, it set the terms by... Read Full Overview

Set in London in 1886, the novel follows the life of Adolf Verloc, a secret agent. Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives and bric-a-brac. He lives with his wife Winnie, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Stevie... Read Full Overview

To the destruction of what is.

London, 1886: Adolf Verloc, by day he is a small shop owner who lives uneventfully with his wife, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law. By night, he is an agent provocateur. The unnamed country in which employs his... Read Full Overview