Rating: 
Summary: excellent novel; but not for everyone
Review: Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, is one of my favorite books because it has a great plot, a fascinating ending, and skillful characterization. However, the vocabulary is advanced, which may make the plotline seem tangled and obscure. I would advise that you keep a dictionary by your side, both to understand all the details and subtleties of the story and to learn a lot of new words. That being said, a lot of people will find this novel too slow and boring. Unfortunately, many people today are too lazy to know their language to the full extent that Conrad did. And just think--English was his second language! But anyway, if you're up for a challenging but richly rewarding read, check out The Secret Agent. Unless you get bored by good writing, you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, bad edition
Review: This is an excellent introduction to Conrad - a bit confusing and dense in places, but not nearly as much so as his better-known Heart of Darkness, and with a situation that most people can more easily fathom. The diversity of characterization and the clash of various fanatical ideals makes for a good storyline.That being said, it is a pity that the publishers of this edition decided to include an essay, bound at the front of the book, that totally gives away the only 'plot twist' worthy of the name in the entire story. This 'foreward' should have been placed after the text. Buy this book, but in a different edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Just plain confusing
Review: Have you ever listened to a conversation and had no idea who or what the people are talking about? This is the feeling i got from this book. The complete frustration of not QUITE understanding who was who, or what was going on. Conrad's style of language really doens't help matters. Some classic books get better with time (Great Expectations, for example) but this just seems dated and from another, rather confusing period of history.
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.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing, but gets better!
Review: This novel was confusing in the beginning. The characters take some time getting used to who is who. Mr. Verloc is one of the main characters in the beginning, but slowly drifts away from even being mentioned at all. Don't be confused , because in the end everything will come together and you'll see exactly why these things happened.It makes you think about what is going to happen through the whole thing! I have to say, the end left me spellbound.
Rating:
Summary: Joesph Conrad's Secret Agent
Review: The Secret Agent has a narrative form with richly described and very intriguing characters. For instance the very first few pages describe Mr. Verloc and his shop. Conrad uses well placed words to accurately paint images in the reader's mind of the indifferent Mr. Verloc, his lovely and buxom wife Winnie and her "slow" brother. Conrad also raises suspicion within the readers minds with his references to the men in the trench coats who walk in and out of the shop in the evenings when the shop door is suspiciously left ajar. Conrad's themes in this book were the alienation of the citizens from the city and the breakdown of communication between the charcters. Each theme was very well communicated and clearly stated. This book provides an interesting read for almost anyone who decides to pick it up.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Clancy, Grisham, Forsyth...
Review: If you like Clancy, Grisham, Forsyth and so on do not waste your time reading this one. As wonderful and amusing it may be for some (they have a rigth to an opinion of course) this belongs to another league. Maybe a better one for some, but boring, slow and dull to me
Rating: 
Summary: It's not just the MTV generation who found this book dull.
Review: For the most part, I think the "classics" are held in high regard for good reason. However, I must disagree with those reviewers who seem to think that anyone who found this book unsatisfying must be a dullard who is too used to watching TV to enjoy a well-written, subtle book. As a 40-year-old who considers himself fairly well-read and enjoys everything from Dickens to Shakespeare to Ayn Rand, I think I am completely within my rights to classify "The Secret Agent" as boring. The plot is NOT complex as some have written and I enjoy nothing more than long, well-written descriptions. In fact, I thought Conrad did a beautiful job of describing London and the people who inhabited it. But the fact remains that very little happens in this book and a great deal of it you can see coming from a mile away (perhaps due to Conrad's fine use of foreshadow). Owing to the theme of isolation and lack of communication betweens the denizens of "modern society" there is very little dialogue. Conrad uses heavy irony and sarcasm when describing the thoughts of certain characters, especially Mr. Verloc. However, I wouldn't call this "funny" and I didn't see as much "humor" in the book as some other reviewers found. When Conrad comes to the thoughts and sayings of the real anarchists in the book, it reminded me a little of Sinclair's "The Jungle", which was a great book and story, marred by the socialist diatribe that covers the last 50 pages or so. Reading these (thankfully) brief conversations between the Professor and Ossipon, I felt as bored as when reading some political tract. There are very few sympathetic characters in the book. So many are obese, as though they are insulated (isolated) from others by their layers of fat. Others are grotesque (the cab driver, Karl Yundt). But the fact that they are unsympathetic or unappealing is not the problem with the book. To me, they were uninteresting. It all boils down to what I say about some forms of music: I find Reggae boring, because it all sounds kind of the same to me; but I love Blues. Well, a lot of the Blues may sound the same, but it so happens that I like the sound. Maybe I just don't like the way Conrad writes. With a nod to the other reviewers who think that the MTV generation isn't capable of liking this book, I know I would have found it even more boring had I read it in high school
Rating:
Summary: another complex novel worth the effort
Review: perhaps people don't like conrad because if his tendancy to vary the tone of his work. at turns bitterly funny, creepy, and rather sad, this very modern "spy novel" is a delight. conrad again takes us through a set of narrative sequence twists- the result of the bomb-plot is revealed a mere 80 pages in, and the fun is following his delightfully full characters as they unwrap what the hell is going on. london takes on a gloomy, nightmarish quality, in many ways as exotic and unfamiliar as the belgian congo. i'm still pondering his odd antipathy toward italian eating establishments.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most influential books of all time!
Review: I love this book! I couldn't put it down at all. I would give it an "A" for anarchy! The plot just explodes in your hands; the characters are hooded in intrigue and destined for a slam-bang finale. I recommend this book to anyone that feels left out or lonely-because it's a good read.
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