The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad - Classic Political Thriller Novel | Penguin Classics Edition | Perfect for Book Clubs & Literature Lovers
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Product Description
Joseph Conrad's dark satire on English society In the only novel Conrad set in London, The Secret Agent 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. His masters instruct him to discredit the anarchists in a humiliating fashion, and when his evil plan goes horribly awry, Verloc must deal with the repercussions of his actions. 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. This edition of The Secret Agent contains a chronology, further reading, notes and maps of London and Greenwich. In his introduction, Michael Newton discusses London's real-life world of political anarchy, and Conrad's portrayal of the Verlocs' marriage.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Customer Reviews
To me, this is Conrad's masterpiece. I hate saying that as the man also wrote Nostromo, and that is a considerable masterpiece. But for me, there is something about the Secret Agent that I keep coming back to, and its hard for me to pin-point.Maybe its because, although the topic matter of the work is grim, I surprise myself by laughing uproariously each time I read this work. Conrad was never really known for his humor, at least from what I can tell, but I find there are places in the book that, whether meant to be intentionally funny or not, make me laugh my head off. I'll leave it at that-there is something strange indeed about this work, which is really quite different from Conrad's other works.
