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: Best enjoyed if you keep focussed while reading it.
Review: This novel is truly both what Conrad subtitles "A Simple Story," and quite a hard nut to crack. Not having read any of Conrad's other, more famous works, I have nothing to compare The Secret Agent to, but I would say that it proved in my own mind that the man is a master of revealing human emotions and motivations. There isn't a single character, however insignifigant they may seem to the story itself, who is not fully developed, from the Assistant Commissioner of Police to Toodles the Secretary to Winnie Verloc, to the intensly creepy "Professor." Nor was this merely description tacked onto the plot; indeed, it took precendence over the plot and became my purpose for continuing to read the book. For the story is simple, and not overly meaninglful.
I will say that Conrad's prose occasionally slowed me down. Once into the middle of a chapter or a conversation I had no problems, but the beginning of each chapter, especially the early ones, was extremely confusing, and had to be suffered through before the books strengths were revealed.
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