The Secret Agent

CONRAD, Joseph

ISBN 10: 1853260657 / ISBN 13: 9781853260650

Published by Wordsworth Classics, U.K, 1993

About this Item

First "printed (1905?1906) as eleven installments in Ridgway's" and published in book form on 12 September 1907. / The story is set in Soho, London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). // This is a paperback in near to fine condition. (269 pages).

Seller Inventory # 1217

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Secret Agent
• Publisher: Wordsworth Classics, U.K
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1853260657
• ISBN 13: 9781853260650
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • CLASSIC LITERATURE
  • FICTION

About this title

Synopsis

Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad is set in 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. However, far from offering any sentimental picture, The Secret Agent is Conrad’s funniest novel. Its savagely witty picture of human absurdity and misunderstanding is written in an ironic style that provokes laughter and unease at the same time, and that continues to provide one of the most disturbing visions of aspiration and futility in twentieth century literature. Introduction and Notes by Hugh Epstein, Secretary of the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain.

About the Author

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is considered to be one of the greatest English-language novelists, a remarkable achievement considering English was not his first language. Conrad's literary works often featured a nautical setting, reflecting the influences of his early career in the Merchant Navy, and his depictions of the struggles of the human spirit in a cold, indifferent world are best exemplified in such seminal works as Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, and Typhoon. Regarded as a forerunner of modernist literature, Conrad's writing style and characters have influenced such distinguished writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and George Orwell, among many others. Many of Conrad's novels have been adapted for film, most notably Heart of Darkness, which served as the inspiration and foundation for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now.