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Title: The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Joseph Conrad, Martin Seymour-Smith, Martin S. Smith ISBN: 0-14-018096-6 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.79 (56 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: No Dostoevsky, but close.
Comment: Mr Verloc is a 'closet' anarchist and a secret agent. Much of his work to date has been of the sedentary type, until the appearance of the smooth talking Mr Vladimir. Dissatisfied with the lack of action by Mr Verloc, he threatens to fire him if he doesn't do something dramatic soon. The suggestion is to blow up the Greenwich observatory in order to wake the slumbering middle classes.
This causes Mr Verloc weeks of anguish as he tries to figure out how to go about this task. His anguish is so much like that of Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov. (The similarity is not accidental; Conrad was heavily influenced by Dostoevksy's style). He finally manages to find a way out of his predicament and it is here where the plot gets thicker. The final quarter of the book is where the real action is, and the twists and turns aren't as predictable as you first make it out to be.
For those brought up on the quick, descriptive style of the modern novels, Conrad's roundabout way of saying things can get a bit irritating, but then that is what makes a classic right? Whatever your preference, I would recommend this book to those who like a good detective novel with a dose of non-conventional 'philosophy' thrown in.
Rating: 2
Summary: The Secret Agent, the book with mroe twists than a twisler
Comment: The Secret Agent, the novel with more twists than a twisler.
In Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, there is lots of complex language. "The utter unexpectedness, improbability, and inconceivableness of such an event robbed this vague declaration of all its effects." This is typically how the book is written. There are extreme amounts of description, and it has an extensive vocabulary within the pages of this novel. The language has a way to catch your eye and make you think. All the characters match well into their setting, and the plot twists them into each other. Although it is so hard to, this book is worth reading.
Mr.Verloc, the protagonist, is a man who lives two lives. He is in one life a lazy husband who owns a pornography store and has to support a family. His other life, believe it or not, is even more twisted. In his other life he is a secret agent for the British CIA. There is lots of love, trust, unfaithfulness, and traitors. Mr. Verloc is double crossed and must fight for his life and to gain back his respect.
The Secret Agent is a very complex book. It can change your perspective with just the turn of a page. Basically, the secret agent, Mr.Verloc fakes his death and has politics and enemies mixed with allies to deal with. Several problems arise for him in the book but he manages to work around them.
Joseph Conrad writes very complex, has a limitless diction, and uses British terms while writing this book. For Example he says, "in brown trousers and a claw hammer coat." Instead of saying straight cut coat. Claw hammer" is a originally facetious way of saying straight cut coat. This novel will make you think and will not simply tell you what happens. He also says, "Like a galley slave's bullet," Instead of saying cannonball. This is a kind of book that will not tell you something but will infer it, and you have to interpret the words.
Mr. Conrad does a good job describing his characters. He paints a great picture of each character. "His eyes were naturally heavy; he had an air of having wallowed fully dressed in an unmade bed," is how he describes Mr. Verloc. Winnie Verloc was described as, "a young woman with a full bust, in a tight bodice, with broad hips. Her hair was very tidy. Steady eyed like her husband, she preserved an air of unfathomable indifference behind the rampant counter." Within these few sentences he tells you her personality and her physical features and you feel as if you almost know her.
Another thing he does well is relate each character's features to their surroundings. Mr. Verloc is pictured as almost dirty with wrinkly clothes and like he has many things he can fix about himself but he chooses not to. His house consequently is described as, "one of those grimy brick houses which existed in large quantities before the era of reconstruction dawned on London." This fits Mr. Verloc's personality because he is a grimy man who exists in large quantities in London. He is the type of man who is lazy and unfortunately very regular in London.
Joseph Conrad is a great author, though very hard to read. His books make you think with every turn of a page and his characters create the most unpredictable circumstances, and act strange when taken out of their own comfort area. This book is good as long as you've got lots of time to think and it is also a book you must read more than once.
Rating: 4
Summary: Classic, clean literature
Comment: I read this book recently, and I seriously enjoyed the whole experience of reading it. The book, set in London, and based around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory is a fantastic read for those of you who like espionage, moving, exasperating thrillers. The characters, though sometimes eccentric and perhaps, some may say, strange, are realistic to the problems of the early twentieth century, and although the elderly language seldom used today was sometimes hard to tackle, it was a great, magical read. It left me feeling angry with some characters, but also happy that a writer could use twists and turns, and suspense to make a good book a fantastic, gripping novel. If you haven't read it, have a go: you may not enjoy the first part as it mentions hard hitting, truthful, content, but sure enough the sheer thrill of such a book relly is a rollercoaster ride for a reader.
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Title: Nostromo a Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad, Martin S. Smith ISBN: 014018371X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1990 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Under Western Eyes by Jeffrey Meyers, Joseph Conrad ISBN: 037575735X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 10 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Lord Jim (Penguin Classics) by Joseph Conrad, Robert Hampson, Cedric P. Watts ISBN: 0140180923 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1989 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Oxford World's Classics) by Ford Madox Ford, Thomas C. Moser ISBN: 019283620X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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