The Secret Agent is a highly politicized novel written by Jose Conrad and was first published in 1907, about the anarchism and somehow the terrorist attacks that were having place in the U.K. And the U.S. back at the time.
Now, I only learned that after reading the Wikipedia article of the novel, because as I always do, I just picked to read this book because the title ‘called me’, since This time I wanted to read an adventure book. And apparently Joseph Conrad wrote this novel inspired by an actually terrorist attack that took place in Greenwich in 1894.
Nerveless, despite the novel gives you what the title promises, a book about a Secret Agent, it was not delivered in the way I expected. Because I wanted to read something like... I don’t know... a Secret Agent like James Bond or something, fooling everyone and making stunts. But instead I got a book extremely boring (at least the first half of it) filled with politics and anarchism.
Fortunately for me, I really got to enjoy the second half of the book, mostly because it’s where the action happens, and all the extensive narrative that I felt unnecessary and boring, took a turn of events.
And let me repeated in case it’s not clear, I disliked the narrative of this book so bad. Joseph Conrad took too many words to describe his characters and situations that (for me) were unnecessary and boring.
Now, from a creative point of view, the idea was very good and controversial, so with a different narrative it would have been a great book, and it actually was, since for what I read on the Wikipedia article, he then created a play version of this book which was successful and that even a Television Series was created based on it.
Back to the story to talk a little about the plot, this book narrates the tale of Mr. Verloc, a Secret Agent, who apparently had left his espionage behind and settled down with his wife, mother in law and special brother in law, in a small shop. But his bubble pops when he is called back to take action or lose his job and salary as a Secret Agent, which he always retained. So the book revolves around about the anxiety and stress of Mr. Verloc having to accomplish the mission that was delegated to him.
To conclude, I gotta say that I have mixed feelings about this book, because as it was annoying to read, but the idea and the plot were good and in a way it exposed secret agents in a more realistic way, so I cannot say I disliked the whole book, yet I can’t say I like it entirely neither. So It is really a mixed feeling, because I cannot state that the book was good nor bad without disagreeing with myself.
So if you wanna read it and try to get your own opinion for this book, you can find it and get it in iBooks for free or download from any public domain library.
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