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Book Description
A group of revolutionaries in the backstreets of 19th-century London plot the destruction of the Greenwich Observatory in this 1907 masterpiece of suspense. Rich in atmosphere and psychological realism, the tale centers on a shopkeeper whose double life encompasses a quiet family circle, active frieContinue
3 Reviews
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Robot-mel said on Sep 29, 2007 | Add your feedback
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I haven't read any Joseph Conrad since my college days and while The Secret Agent is supposed to be one of his more famous yet accessible works, the prose is still quite dense by contemporary standards.
As a spy novel, The Secret Agent belongs to the understated kind brought to prominence by John ... (continue)
Jubei said on Jan 12, 2010 | Add your feedback
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goldtop said on Jan 11, 2008 | Add your feedback
Book Details
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Rating:
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- English Books
- Paperback 208 Pages
- ISBN-10: 0486419185
- ISBN-13: 9780486419183
- Publisher: Dover Publications
- Pub date: Nov 09, 2001
- Dimensions: 1355 mm x 839 mm x 65 mm Just how big is that?
- Also available as: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Library Binding, School & Library Binding, Others and eBook
- In other languages: other languages
Margin notes of this book
Prices Change currency & sellers
| ISBN | Edition | List | Sale | Seller |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9780486419183 | Paperback | $5.00 | $4.50 | bn.com |
| $5.00 | $4.50 | The Book Depository | ||
| Other editions → | ||||
| + 4 copies tradable: → | ||||
Ctucker 
1 person find this helpful
I wouldn't have picked up this book to read on my own but it was this month's book for Bibliogoth (the goth reading group here in London). I've not read any of Joseph Conrad's other books, though I do want to read "Heart of Darkness". When I picked it up I was very excited to see that he had dedicat ... (continue)
I wouldn't have picked up this book to read on my own but it was this month's book for Bibliogoth (the goth reading group here in London). I've not read any of Joseph Conrad's other books, though I do want to read "Heart of Darkness". When I picked it up I was very excited to see that he had dedicated it to H G Wells, for all the books of his that I loved. So I was expecting to enjoy it a lot.
I was a little dissapointed. I found it quite hard to visualise, and the fact that the story kept going backwards and fowards in time without much clarity to be a bit disconcerting. I thought the charcterisation was quite good, particularly towards the end when they went a bit mad. I also liked the way the sister treated her brother, having looked after disabled people for 10 years it seemed quite realistic, even if his speech didn't really. I found it a little difficult to keep all the police characters straight, and sometimes it was hard to tell who was talking. I also felt that it didn't quite give the charcters, particularly the terrorists enough motivation. I didn't feel like they really had a cause they were fighting for, this may of course be different between terrorists now and then, but I think of the characters in Anatole France's 'Revolt of the Angels' written around the same time also had that motivation. The characters in this book all seemed rather weak and helpless. I still want to read 'Heart of Darkness' but this book, while more enjoyable to me than a lot of modern fiction, didn't really compare to other works I've read from the period.
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