num_pages: 352
description: Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeEdited and with Notes by Peter Lancelot MalliosIntroduction by Robert D. KaplanIn reexamining The Secret Agent in a post-9/11 world, Robert D. Kaplan praises Joseph Conrad’s “surgical insight into the mechanics of terrorism,” calling the book “a fine example of how a savvy novelist may detect the future long before a social scientist does.”This intense 1907 thriller–a precursor to works by Graham Greene and John le Carré–concerns a British double agent who infiltrates a cabal of anarchists. Conrad explores political and criminal intrigue in a modern society, building to a climax that the critic F. R. Leavis deemed “one of the most astonishing triumphs of genius in fiction.”
language: English
title: The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
titlecomplete: The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
characters: Winnie Verloc, Comrade Alexander Ossipon, Mr. Vladimir, Sir Ethelred, Stevie, Michaelis, Adolf Verloc, Chief Inspector Heat, Karl Yundt, the Assistant Commissioner
genres: 20th Century, Thriller, Novels, Espionage, Crime, Literature, Classics, Mystery, British Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 22115
places: London, England
publisher: Modern Library