woensdag 11 mei 2016

Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent

Hi everyone

The Secret Agent is my first book by Joseph Conrad.
I got it on holiday in Valencia and my copy has 270 pages and 8 pages author’s note.

“The Secret Agent is Conrad’s dark, and darkly comic story of a band of spies, anarchists, agents-provocateurs plotting and counter-plotting in the back streets of London in the early 20th Century. The novel centers on Verloc, a shop-owner, phony-anarchist and double-agent, who becomes embroiled in an ambitious terrorist plan to bomb the Greenwich Observatory.”

I have mixed feelings.
The first part was rather boring to be honest. But the second part was so sad and touching and I loved that.

Conrad’s writing style is incredibly dense and it’s hard to follow what’s going on, especially in the first part. It took some effort to figure what was happening.
The pacing of the novel confused me and that didn’t help either.
The story is very simple but he makes it way too complicated.

Conrad’s characterization is good though.
I actually liked Mr. Verloc even though it is his fault Stevie is dead. Verloc is a coward and he cares only for himself and his comfort. Why would I care about someone like him? But strangely, I did.

3 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena

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