• This edition binds together The Secret Agent (1907) with BONUS NOVEL Under Western Eyes (1911), two novels close in commentary, conflict and the failure of political ideals. The Secret Agent It is London, the year is 1886, and secret agent Verloc is selling pornography, contraceptives, and bric-a-brac in his shop. He lives with his wife, Winnie, his mother-in-law, and brother-in-law, Stevie. Stevie, and his friends include a group of anarchist terrorists (although not terribly successful.) Verloc soon meets Mr. Vladimir, the new First Secretary in the embassy of a foreign country where he is employed as an agent provocateur. His next mission is to bomb London's Greenwich Observatory. But there is more to this tale of anarchy and terror. As the story unfolds, a woman has left behind her wedding ring before drowning in the English Channel in the most mysterious of circumstances.. The Secret Agent is one of Conrad's later political novels, dealing with espionage, and terrorism at home rather than abroad. It is also a commentary on the social uprisings of the twentieth century and the book was also among the most cited works of literature in the aftermath of 9/11. Under Western Eyes Razumov, a young orphaned Russian student, is surprised to find Victor Haldin hiding in his apartment – even more so when Haldin confesses he has just committed a political assassination and is on the run from police. Razumov agrees to help Haldin escape but he is panic-stricken. Instead, Rzaumov goes to his university professor, an old English professor of languages, and they plan to turn Haldinover to the chief of police. As the trap is set, Razumov finds himself immersed in the world of secret agents. In Geneva, Haldin’s sister Natalia learns about her brother’s fate through the professor and she anxiously awaits the arrival of Razumov, believing him to be her brother’s friend rather than the man who betrayed him. About the Author Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish author who relocated to England. He is perhaps best known for his classic Heart of Darkness, but in The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes Conrad establishes his credentials in the genre of political and espionage thrillers.
Author
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa. Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard British ships, learning English from his shipmates. He was made a Master Mariner, and served more than sixteen years before an event inspired him to try his hand at writing. He was hired to take a steamship into Africa, and according to Conrad, the experience of seeing firsthand the horrors of colonial rule left him a changed man. Joseph Conrad settled in England in 1894, the year before he published his first novel. He was deeply interested in a small number of writers both in French and English whose work he studied carefully. This was useful when, because a need to come to terms with his experience, lead him to write Heart of Darkness, in 1899, which was followed by other fictionalized explorations of his life. He has been lauded as one of the most powerful, insightful, and disturbing novelists in the English canon despite coming to English later in life, which allowed him to combine it with the sensibilities of French, Russian, and Polish literature.
