Reading Order
The Secret Agent Reading Order
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907) is a standalone novel — there is no series and no sequel. Mr. Verloc, a double agent working for a foreign embassy in London, is instructed to stage a terrorist bombing of the Greenwich Observatory. One of the first great novels about terrorism and political violence, and Conrad's most satirical work.
Where to start
The Secret Agent
Complete The Secret Agent Book List
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The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad·1907·Standalone novel — Mr. Verloc, his wife Winnie, and her brother Stevie in London; approximately 250 pages; subtitled 'A Simple Tale'; Conrad called it his 'most anxiously meditated' work; based on a real 1894 incident in which a French anarchist accidentally blew himself up near the Greenwich Observatory; the novel's handling of terrorism, surveillance, and political radicalism was radically ahead of its time - Buy
Nostromo
OptionalJoseph Conrad·1904·Conrad's most ambitious novel — the fictional South American republic of Costaguana and the silver mine that corrupts everyone it touches; written three years before The Secret Agent; the companion to The Secret Agent in Conrad's engagement with political corruption, but on a much larger scale and in a non-European setting - Buy
The Shadow-Line
OptionalJoseph Conrad·1917·A young captain's first command — Conrad's late masterpiece and the most autobiographical of his maritime fictions; shorter and more concentrated than The Secret Agent and very different in subject; the natural next Conrad for readers who want to see the range of his work beyond the political
The Secret Agent — Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Secret Agent based on a true story?
Yes, partially — The Secret Agent was inspired by the Greenwich Park bombing of 1894, in which a French anarchist named Martial Bourdin accidentally detonated a bomb he was carrying near the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, losing his hand and dying of his injuries. The real circumstances of the bombing were never fully explained. Conrad was fascinated by the incident and used it as the basis for his novel, transforming Bourdin into Stevie (Verloc's mentally disabled brother-in-law) and imagining a conspiracy of embassy officials and police informers behind the bombing. The novel's portrait of the London anarchist underworld drew on Conrad's own knowledge of revolutionary circles in the 1880s and 1890s.
Is The Secret Agent Conrad's most readable novel?
The Secret Agent is certainly among Conrad's most accessible major novels — it is set in London rather than an exotic maritime location, it has a clear plot with a beginning, middle, and end, and it is shorter and less structurally complex than Nostromo. Many readers find it a better starting point than Lord Jim or Nostromo because the social setting is familiar and the narrative proceeds more or less chronologically. That said, Heart of Darkness (which is a novella) is usually recommended as the first Conrad, both because of its brevity and because it is the most thematically central to his concerns.
What kind of novel is The Secret Agent?
The Secret Agent is a political thriller, a dark comedy, and a work of social satire all at once. Conrad described it as 'a tale of simple city life told in a sinister manner' — he was being ironic about the 'simple' part. The novel satirizes the London police, the anarchist movement, and the foreign embassies that manipulate both; it takes as its subject the fundamental absurdity of political violence (the bomb that kills the wrong person is Conrad's darkest joke) and the complicity of everyone who benefits from the political system in the violence required to maintain it. The tonal range — from comedy to tragedy to melodrama — is extraordinary.
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