Rating: 
Summary: Secret Agent
Review: Again Conrad shows his adroitness at developing a plot. Not only was Conrad a gifted storyteller but he is equally adept at both charcater develpoment and descriptiveness. The Secret Agent is the story of a double agent who becomes a pawn,not only of the government he supposedly represents but with the British officials who have turned him. Trying to impress his handlers, he decides to plant a bomb that ends in tragedy for his own family.Conrad's portyal of anarchists as a bumbling lot with their own self serving agenda is the important point that is characteristic of all of Conrad's woks. The Secret Agent is not a stylishly written as Nostromo and lord Jim and is a bit faster paced. It also contains a somewhat comedic tone which is unlike Conrad's other works. What i appreciate most about Conrad is that he writes with all the talent and descriptiveness of other great authors but he is also a greta storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: A dark and nihilistic tale; grim realism at its best
Review: As I read through the "critical" comments of high school and college students who are assigned to read the works of Joseph Conrad then fuss and fume at the very idea of it, I find myself deeply disappointed by their lack of appreciation for the subtleties of great literature. They have little time or patience to devote to an author who provides his readers with so much vivid description, building toward a stunning and inevitable climax. In the "Secret Agent," Conrad points to the frailties of the human condition, the large forces of nature at work that conspire against the simple and downtrodden man trapped by his own cunning devices. Mr. Verloc is a simple, plodding peasant; and just why he embraces the anarchistic cause is never made clear to the reader, but no matter. He is trapped in a sterile nightmarish world where the idealists and the self-proclaimed revolutionaries are as morally bankrupt and empty of human emotion as the system they purport to overthrow. Conrad's characterizations are brilliant. His use of dialog and description, a hallmark of the early twentieth century realists, and the grim ending to this novel is a masterpiece of understatement. It is too bad that fine old classics of literature like this one and the more famous Conrad novella "The Heart of Darkness" must be subjected to the vapidity and sophomoric opinions of a generation of students weaned on MTV, the Simpsons, and thirty-second TV soundbytes.
Rating:
Summary: This act of madness or despair.
Review: At the end of the novel Comrade Ossipon says, "An impenetrable mystery...this act of madness or despair." He is thinking about what Winnie has done. He cannot fathom it. The novel is unfathomable too; dense, twisting, sordid, ironic. There are some great scenes in this book. At the end, Verloc thinks Winnie truly loves him when in fact she doesn't, and never has; she had always loved the butcher. The horse scene where Stevie pets the old mistreated horse also comes to mind.
The only character Conrad has sympathy for is Stevie, and he gets blown to bits. Stevie is the only one who can truly show love. Ironically, he's mentally retarded. Everyone else is manipulative and calculating.
The book was published in 1906, some 50 or so years after Das Capital, The Communist Manifesto, etc. were published. Europe was swarming with "revolutionists" and "anarchists." Journalists were writing about "the people" and "the masses" and "social justice." Conrad was no dummy. He analyzed what was going on around him in England, France, Germany, etc., then he wrote this book as an "answer" to the socialists, anarchists. This is probably one of the most supremely ironical novels ever written. Stevie's demise is meaningless; there is absolutely no sense or purpose to it. The anarchist world in the novel is meaningless, peopled by sordid, parasitic rabble-rousers and journalists. Even Heat, the Assistant Commissioner, Sir Ethelred, the Assistant Commissioner's wife, the lady patroness, the "good side"--none of them without guilt. They too are schemers, calculating their social advancement. Like a coin, they are just the flip side of the socialits'. The whole society is corrupt, socialist and police alike. In repugnance, Conrad just blows up the whole damn mess. And how ironically does he do it! He blows up the only redeeming thing in that society, a retarded boy who loves without calculation, who goes into emotional fits when witnessing any gratuitous cruelty--cruelty even shown to animals. Dark novel. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: A Contemporarily Relevant Classic
Review: Conrad's The Secret Agent (Don't get excited, I can't underline from my browser...) is the brilliantly written story of the life of an anarchist in England at the turn of the century. Mr. Verlock is an agent for the French embassy in London, yet, at the same time, an activist for an anarchist revolution. Verlock lives with his young wife Winnie and her slightly disabled kid brother Stevie, atop a store on a run down street in London. The plot takes place around 1895, a time when anarchists in England carried out terrorist acts for their cause. Around 1895, Britain considered Anarchists common terrorists. Though most believe that Conrad portrays Verlock as a terrible person, one finds that by following both Verlock, and the investigation into a failed plot to destroy a London observatory, Conrad really displays the ease with which one's beliefs can change into terrorist plots. Thus, Verlock is not really portrayed as such a bad person. This book, especially relevant in today's age of terrorism, a wonderful read, and full of symbolism, will make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Dark humor and a bleak prescience
Review: For all the talk of the supposed "difficulty" of this novel, I found it to be one of the best construed and told that I have read lately. It goes well beyond a simple thriller or spy novel; it is an intense human drama in which the characters have real personalities. Verloc is a loser. He has been living, for the last eleven or so years, off the payments of a foreign embassy which employs him to spy and report on the activities of a terrorist cell, also composed of frustrated, useless, all-talk-no-action losers. Other reviewers have aptly described these characters. Verloc lives also off the meager profits of a news store, which serves as cover up for his clandestine activities, ignored even by his family. This consists of his younger wife, Winny, her mother and her retarded brother Stevie, a sympathetic but hopeless young man. As the novel opens, Verloc is in deep trouble. The new officers at the embassy are displeased at the results Verloc's work has achieved, and so one of them brutally warns him that the pay will stop if he doesn't produce at least one major act of terrorism, say, blow up the Greenwich observatory, an icon of modern faith in science. Verloc gets obviously dismayed at this order, for he is no terrorist at all, just a scumbag of an idler. I won't spoil the rest of the story up to the attack, but the resulting situation will show how coward these terrorists are (we hope none of them were as bold as other terrorists we know are) and how fragile Verloc's family relations are, especially in view of the terribly stupid action he commits. This is a very dark tale. None of the characters are attractive, but they are exteremely well developed, and that's what counts. The humor used by Conrad is without concessions: for all its cruelty, I found the bombing scene a very funny one. Conrad makes hard fun of all these types who talk and talk about anarchy, the "Revolution", ideology and their supposed love for humanity, a love conspicuously absent from their daily lives. How pertinent, in these times, to have a great and darkly funny novel to taka a look at, now that the types have, sadly, passed into action.
Rating:
Summary: Dark humor and a bleak prescience
Review: For all the talk of the supposed "difficulty" of this novel, I found it to be one of the best construed and told that I have read lately. It goes well beyond a simple thriller or spy novel; it is an intense human drama in which the characters have real personalities. Verloc is a loser. He has been living, for the last eleven or so years, off the payments of a foreign embassy which employs him to spy and report on the activities of a terrorist cell, also composed of frustrated, useless, all-talk-no-action losers. Other reviewers have aptly described these characters. Verloc lives also off the meager profits of a news store, which serves as cover up for his clandestine activities, ignored even by his family. This consists of his younger wife, Winny, her mother and her retarded brother Stevie, a sympathetic but hopeless young man. As the novel opens, Verloc is in deep trouble. The new officers at the embassy are displeased at the results Verloc's work has achieved, and so one of them brutally warns him that the pay will stop if he doesn't produce at least one major act of terrorism, say, blow up the Greenwich observatory, an icon of modern faith in science. Verloc gets obviously dismayed at this order, for he is no terrorist at all, just a scumbag of an idler. I won't spoil the rest of the story up to the attack, but the resulting situation will show how coward these terrorists are (we hope none of them were as bold as other terrorists we know are) and how fragile Verloc's family relations are, especially in view of the terribly stupid action he commits. This is a very dark tale. None of the characters are attractive, but they are exteremely well developed, and that's what counts. The humor used by Conrad is without concessions: for all its cruelty, I found the bombing scene a very funny one. Conrad makes hard fun of all these types who talk and talk about anarchy, the "Revolution", ideology and their supposed love for humanity, a love conspicuously absent from their daily lives. How pertinent, in these times, to have a great and darkly funny novel to taka a look at, now that the types have, sadly, passed into action.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic, clean literature
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Crime and Punishment
Review: It is amazing how well this terribly story fits into nowadays reality. Terrorism, with all its hideous irrationality and contradictions is masterly depicted by Conrad. And so is human nature. Every single character is treated here as the center of his/her own universe, which results in wonderful psychological creations. From the very Mr Verloc -the secret agent- to an apparently insignificant cabman, all of them are given here the opportunity of redemption, since they are so humanly feeble. The author reaches this goal by arriving at numerous standstills where action seems to be suspended in the air while characters are sunk in deep reflection -or else are aided by Conrad's voice on account of their difficulties to express themselves. The whole story is encircled in a gloomy atmosphere that turns to be very difficult to escape from. It starts with Mr Verloc's visit to "the embassy" where he is assigned a mission to "justify" his work as secret agent. Being scornfully treated, he finds himself involved in a plot that leads him to take actions he would have never think of...wouldn't he...? Thus, his initial attempt to blow up the Greenwich observatory ends up in a dreadful tragedy whose unspeakable consequences had not been meant by his author. Although not easy to follow for the non-native reader, which is my case, this appalling and great story is really worthwhile. I am glad I have made the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: No Dostoevsky, but close.
Review: 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:
Summary: unique among Conrad's novels
Review: One thing that I find interesting with this novel is that it is set in London. All of the other Conrad novels I have read so far have dealt with the sea or foreign lands. The exotic quality found in his other novels is still present, as the London Conrad describes is as mysterious as the jungles of Africa and the tropics of the East Indies. This novel also focused on a broad range of characters, unlike some of his novels that set out to tell the story of a particular character (e.g., Chance, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim). The story involves espionage and deception, as secret agent Adolph Verloc executes a mission to bomb a place of science (supposedly the Unabomber's inspiration). Adolph the spy/family man, Stevie the slow brother in law and unknowing pawn, the Professor with his suicide bomb, and the deceived wife Winnie are just among the unusual characters Conrad creates. I especially liked the character Winnie, as her mounting suspicion and eventual realization of her husband's profession and his horrible act provided a moral viewpoint from within the novel (more or less in the form of revulsion and outrage). Conrad's style of writing can be difficult at times, as he often provides lengthy narrative that can be overwhelming at times. However, acclimation to his style mitigates this, and the results are rewarding. I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend this and Conrad's other works.
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