The Secret Agent

A quiet Soho shopkeeper leads a double life. Mr. Verloc sells anarchist pamphlets and pornography, but he also works as a secret agent for a foreign embassy. When his handler demands a spectacular act of violence to provoke a crackdown on radicals, Verloc is drawn into a plot that will destroy the lives of those closest to him. Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, first published in 1907, is a dark, ironic classic of political fiction, based on a real anarchist bombing in Greenwich. It is a novel about terrorism, surveillance, and the terrible cost of ideology on ordinary people. Conrad, a former sea captain born in Poland, brings a unique perspective to the fog-bound streets of London, where police inspectors, embassy officials, and a cast of ineffectual anarchists circle one another. Readers who enjoy psychological depth, moral complexity, and atmospheric prose will find much to admire. This edition contains the complete text of the novel, a new introduction, a character guide, a summary, a list of themes, a glossary of period terms, and discussion questions for readers, students, and book clubs.