Published in 1907, The Secret Agent is Joseph Conrad’s darkly ironic novel set in the seedy underworld of London anarchism and counter-espionage — the story of Adolf Verloc, a double agent ordered to carry out a terrorist bombing that ends in an unspeakable tragedy. Conrad’s bleak view of political idealism and institutional corruption gives the novel an unsettling contemporary relevance.
The subtitle, “A Simple Tale,” is acidly ironic — the novel is anything but simple in its moral vision. Download this free EPUB from Better Gutenberg for the complete text of this important modernist work.