Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Secret Agent

Author:      Joseph Conrad
Published:  1907
Readers in India:

Read  Online:
http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/secret_agent/1/

In 1894 at Greenwich Park, London, an anarchist called Martial Bourdin was killed  when the explosives he was carrying prematurely detonated. His motives and the potential target of his bombing remained a mystery. It is this incident which inspired the author Joseph Conrad to write this novel which is perhaps one of the first spy novels written in English literature. The author spins out a simple imaginative story behind this bombing and its aftermath.
If you are expecting a plot and suspense on the lines of modern-day thrillers, you will be disappointed. However this book has  brilliant tragi-comic portrayals of  characters and situations in the plot, which are a delight to read if you have a taste for late nineteenth century/early twentieth century English literature. And this comes from a person (Conrad was of  Polish origin.) who did not speak English fluently till he was in twenties.
You can read the plot summary of this novel at
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Agent

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