The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
Joseph Conrad
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
FictionClassicsThrillers & Espionage
14 chapters·9h 53m listening
3.58from 25,567 ratingson Goodreads
"The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale" by Joseph Conrad is a novel first published in installments in 1905–1906 and in book form in 1907. Set in 1886 London, it follows Adolf Verloc, a secret agent and shop owner who lives with his wife Winnie and her intellectually disabled brother Stevie. When Verloc is pressured to bomb Greenwich Observatory to provoke public outrage against anarchists, the operation goes catastrophically wrong. The story explores themes of espionage, terrorism, exploitation, and the devastating consequences of deception within a family.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
Published in 1907, The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale centres on Adolf Verloc, who keeps a small shop of dubious goods in Soho and lives there with his wife Winnie, her mother and her vulnerable brother Stevie. Verloc is also a paid informer for a foreign embassy, and its new first secretary orders him to provoke public alarm with a bomb attack on the Greenwich Observatory. Joseph Conrad based the plot on a real attempted bombing at Greenwich in 1894, and moves between the anarchists who gather in Verloc’s parlour, the police and the embassy. Told with sustained irony, the novel exposes the self-interest of revolutionaries and officials alike, and the private devotion that lies at its heart.
Characters
Adolf Verloc — Protagonist
A London shopkeeper and secret agent whose quiet domestic life conceals political dealings.
Winnie Verloc — Verloc's wife
A practical woman whose marriage is closely tied to her devotion to her vulnerable brother.
Stevie — Winnie's brother
A sensitive young man distressed by cruelty and dependent on his sister's protection.
Mr. Vladimir — Embassy official
An official who pressures Verloc to produce a dramatic act that will serve his government's aims.
The Professor — Explosives maker
An isolated extremist who stakes his independence on the threat of violence.
Chief Inspector Heat — Police officer
An investigator whose knowledge of informers complicates his response to a bombing.
Alexander Ossipon — Political associate
A former medical student attached to the anarchist circle around Verloc.
About the author
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in Russian-ruled Ukraine, the son of Polish nationalists who were exiled for it and died of it before he was twelve. He went to sea at sixteen, spent twenty years in the French and British merchant marine and qualified as a master mariner, and only then began to write — in English, his third language, which he had learned in his twenties and always spoke with an accent nobody could place. The command of a Congo river steamer in 1890 broke his health and produced Heart of Darkness. His novels include Lord Jim, Nostromo and The Secret Agent.