The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent is widely considered one of Conrad’s greatest literary achievements. Set in gloomy 1886 London, the novel follows the life of Alfred Verdoc, a Soho shop owner and secret agent who is a member of a largely ineffectual anarchist cell. During a meeting at an unnamed foreign embassy where he is a covert employee, Verdoc is tasked with bombing the Greenwich Observatory—ostensibly to create public outrage and goad a lax British government into to acting more forcibly against émigré socialist and anarchist activists. The evil plan goes awry with far-reaching and devastating consequences.

This Warbler Classics edition includes an essay on Joseph Conrad by J. B. Priestly and a detailed biographical timeline.

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-born British writer who ranks amongst the greatest of all English novelists and stylists.

J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster, and social commentator.

“One of Conrad’s supreme masterpieces.”
—F. R. Leavis

“[A] strange, complex, and deeply ironic novel.”
—The Guardian

“The true classic of terrorism.”
—The New York Times