Author: Joseph Conrad
Publisher:
Published: 2016-08-04
Total Pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9781536906370
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The novel is set in London in 1886 and follows the life of Mr. Verloc, a secret agent. Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives, and bric-a-brac. He lives with his wife Winnie, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Stevie. Stevie has a mental disability, possibly autism,[5] which causes him to be very excitable; his sister, Verloc's wife, attends to him, treating him more as a son than as a brother. Verloc's friends are a group of anarchists of which Comrade Ossipon, Michaelis, and "The Professor" are the most prominent. Although largely ineffectual as terrorists, their actions are known to the police. The group produce anarchist literature in the form of pamphlets entitled F.P., an acronym for The Future of the Proletariat. Verloc is no James Bond; he is an observer, and informer; that is, until one day he is told, by the shady Mr. Vladimir, who is some kind of foreign ambassador, that observation is not enough. He must, says Vladimir, prove to be indispensable if he wants to remain on the payroll. This being indispensable involves blowing up Greenwich Observatory, the aim of which is to stir England into decisive, even extreme, action against criminal/revolutionary/terrorist elements or organisations. It is Vladimir's idea that in order to do this one must get the attention of, to wake up so to speak, the middle classes. The Secret Agent features intellectually dull men, incompetent revolutionaries with radical ideas or, in Verloc's case, an incompetent secret agent. As with Stevie, Conrad's banal yet convoluted style in a way mirrors the mental, intellectual state of these characters. Facts and Trivia: 1. A 1996 film The Secret Agent, more faithful to the original novel, starred Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette and Gérard Depardieu. 2. In January 2008, the play was staged in Italian by the Teatro Stabile di Genova of Genoa, under the direction of Marco Sciaccaluga. Scroll Up and get Your Copy! Best Classic Novels The Call of the Wild by Jack Londonhttps://www.createspace.com/6420473 White Fang by Jack Londonhttps://www.createspace.com/6420475 Lady Susan by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6398116 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6425513 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6428190 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6428537 Persuasion by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6427638 Love and Friendship by Jane Austenhttps://www.createspace.com/6439962 Daisy Miller (1879) by Henry Jameshttps://www.createspace.com/6445037 Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanuhttps://www.createspace.com/6451809 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontëhttps://www.createspace.com/6444859 OZ Series: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6426287 TIK-TOK of OZ https://www.createspace.com/6353841 Ozma of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6356346 Glinda of OZ https://www.createspace.com/6461890 The Scarecrow of OZ https://www.createspace.com/6461981 The Marvelous Land of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6462832 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464450 The Road to Oz by https://www.createspace.com/6464521 The Emerald City of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464602 The Patchwork Girl of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464682 The Lost Princess of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6465342 The Tin Woodman of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6466582 Rinkitink in Oz https://www.createspace.com/6464764 The Magic of Oz https://www.createspace.com/6466620