Secret Agent (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

A Catch-22 within Conrad's plot.

A couple small critiques before I heap praise onto Conrad's The Secret Agent. First, Steven Marcus (the writer of the Introduction and Endnotes) appears to do too much work within this. Over 90 pages of introductory material that give away key plot points, it's best if it is skipped and then read afterwards, if you wish. The endnotes are also much more numerous than necessary; in fact, quite a few of them refer to knowledge that may be common to yourself. They also often refer back to the introduction, which suckers readers into perusing it for more information. Second, Conrad (to paraphrase a review found in the rear of the book) lengthens a short story. This is a novel that could easily be 70 pages long, if not for the over-descriptive text in-between conversations describing characters emotions hanging on every statement. But there is a catch-22. This is necessary, though not at the time. Conrad plays up simple conversations which enhances some foreshadowing by attempting to create dramatic tension in seemingly normal conversations. By doing so, he lengthens a story, which the reader realizes is running on far too long about half-way through it, when a simple two-minute conversation is stretched out over 20 or so pages through Conrad's flowery descriptions of the inner-workings of the character's minds. This is all annoying to the audience, but we find out it is necessary during the novel's climax, in which (avoiding spoilers while describing as best I can here) Conrad finally enchants us with the back-and-forth mind-readings of a psychological breakdown and the blissfully unaware victim. If Conrad does not prepare us properly for this descriptive scene, we are feeling that the climax is aggressively drawn out, and thus seems unreal. By stretching out the novel, he allows the plot to simmer slowly, instead of microwaving his soup. For readers who can afford to plow through intricately sowed fields of plot, the payoff is one that provides a couple of excellently played twists at the end. For those that are impatient, this novel is one they should pass up; but they do so at their own spoils.

Floating lines and partial paragraphs

This comment is specific to the eBook version I recently received. There are a number of places where a line (or more) of text is missing. Other times, there is a portion of a paragraph inserted in a place where it clearly does not flow. The galley proof should be checked more carefully before production.

Amazing read

Just today I finally finished reading The Secret Agent. This has to be (not only one of the best Conrad Novels) one of the greatest novels I have ever read. It is an amazing tale of terrorism, and plotting deep within, and really makes a person think about the psychological horrors of man.

more enjoyable than Heart of Darkness or Lord Jim

When I first started reading this, I thought that it was a satire, but reviews that I've read indicate otherwise. The story is about a reluctant secret agent who is in it only for the money and who botches his first terrorist act, thus triggering a wave of events that lead to his demise. Although the story is certainly not funny, it¿s hard to take it seriously. Conrad must have been smiling when he came up with the idea for the clue that leads to the discovery of the terrorist's guilt. The 'known terrorists' with whom the secret agent associates are anything but threatening, especially the grossly overweight Michael, who spends all his time writing a book about his prison experience, and Comrade Ossipon, who is horrified at the sight of a dead body and appalled that he might be implicated in a murder. It's interesting that Conrad refers to the bomb builder as the 'perfect anarchist,' perhaps because he has no interest in his customers¿ motivations or the purposes fulfilled by his weapons. Is this a satire? You be the judge.

Timely Indeed

Conrad's prophetic tale of Anarchists written in 1907 is the story of our current World Trade Center crisis. Anarchists or Islamic Terrorists bent on the innocent destruction of life or progress such as science in the case of Conrad is evil..it needs not be understood but crushed. Anarchism,Terrorism both strike at the heart of decency killing innocent people and destroying innocent symbols of humanity. Conrad's heart of darkness is visible in the Secret Agent.

REVIEW: The Secret Agent

This was one of the most laborious reads of my life. I would not wish it upon anyone. In fact, if it had not been included on USA Today's TOP 100 English language novels of all-time, I would have not read it.

Secret Agent

The story itself wasn't complicate at all, but the main charactor's psychological inner struggles make story exciting. Even though the author's mother's tongue was not English, his English vocabularies are limitless and very intelligent.

Secret Agent

As a man who speak English as a second language, I was so surprised at his writing. He used many difficult English words in his novel and I coulnd believe his mother language wasn't even English and he learn it after age of 20. Even though the story is quite short, it was very exciting and very clever and well organized.

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