The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale - Softcover

Conrad, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1484879449 ISBN 13: 9781484879443

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

"The Secret Agent" is considered to be one of Joseph Conrad's finest works and was ranked the 46th best novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library. Set in London at the end of the nineteenth century, it follows the life of Mr. Verloc, a secret agent who is also the proprietor of a small shop that sells, “photographs of more or less undressed dancing girls” and “a few books, with titles hinting at impropriety.“ Verloc’s friends, a group of anarchists, assign him the task of destroying the Greenwich Observatory, but when things go awry, Verloc must deal with the terrible consequences of his actions. As current now, as it was a century ago, Conrad weaves a chilling tale of espionage, exploitation and terrorism that is all too present in our own time.

About this title

Review:

"Perenially fascinating... When Joseph Conrad wrote The Secret Agent he was responding imaginatively to a real botched bomb attack on Greenwich, at a time when there was real panic about anarchist extremism throughout Europe" (Guardian)

"An astonishing book" (Ford Madox Ford)

"This damp, dark thriller dances about on satirical feet, from its opening paragraph to the very last, where it suddenly plunges like Chernobyl's core to our own apocalyptic times, seamed with petit-bourgeois envy and crazed fundamentalist dreams. Whether attacking the former or the latter, Conrad never lets go of his grim, twitchy smile." (Adam Thorpe Guardian)

"One of the two unquestionable classics of the first order that [Conrad] added to the English novel" (F.R. Leavis)

Book Description:

'Spookily topical' - Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1484879449
• ISBN 13: 9781484879443
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 218