Books with title Secret Agent: A Simple Tale

With an Introduction and Notes by Hugh Epstein, Secretary of the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain 'Then the vision of an enormous town prented itself, of a monstrous town...a cruel devourer of the world's light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough for any passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five millions of lives.' Conrad's 'monstrous town' is London, and his story of espionage and counter-espionage, anarchists and embassies, is a detective story that becomes the story of Winnie Verloc's tenacity in maintaining her devotion to her peculiar and simple-minded brother, Stevie, as they pursue their very ordinary lives above a rather dubious shop in the back streets of Soho.

This new edition of Conrad's compelling tale of espionage and terrorism set in Edwardian London is based on a painstaking comparison of the original manuscript of the work with its first, truncated appearance, and with all subsequent book form publications overseen by Conrad himself. The result is this new text, purged of printers' errors and editorial interventions. Included are a critical introduction, an essay on the text itself, a textual apparatus, and helpul explanatory notes.

The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). The Secret Agent is one of Conrad's later political novels in which he moved away from his former tales of seafaring. The novel is dedicated to H. G. Wells and deals broadly with anarchism, espionage and terrorism. It also deals with exploitation of the vulnerable in Verloc's relationship with his brother-in-law Stevie, who has a learning difficulty. Conrad’s gloomy portrait of London depicted in the novel was influenced by Charles Dickens’ Bleak House.

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, his wife was in charge of his brother-in-law. The shop was small, and so was the house. It was one of those grimy brick houses which existed in large quantities before the era of reconstruction dawned upon London. The shop was a square box of a place, with the front glazed in small panes. In the daytime the door remained closed; in the evening it stood discreetly but suspiciously ajar.

This is Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, "The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale". Set in London in 1886, it concerns Mr. Adolf Verloc, a spy who works for an unknown country. The novel is significant as it was one of Conrad's later political novels, representing a divergence from his earlier stories of seafaring. "The Secret Agent" deals with ideas of anarchism, terrorism, espionage, and exploitation. Modern Library ranked it the 46th most significant novel of the 20th century and, due to its themes, was one of the most referenced novels in American media subsequent to the 9/11 attacks. Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924) was a Polish-British writer considered to be amongst the greatest novelists in the English language. Other notable works by this author include: "Heart of Darkness" (1899), "Nostromo" (1904), and "Under Western Eyes" (1911). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

he Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). The Secret Agent is one of Conrad's later political novels in which he moved away from his former tales of seafaring. The novel is dedicated to H. G. Wells and deals broadly with anarchism, espionage and terrorism. It also deals with exploitation of the vulnerable in Verloc's relationship with his brother-in-law Stevie, who has a learning difficulty. Conrad’s gloomy portrait of London depicted in the novel was influenced by Charles Dickens’ Bleak House.