Detrás de la fachada de una tienda del Soho que vende mercancía un tanto dudosa vive Verloc con su mujer Winnie, la madre de ella y Stevie, el hermano de ésta. Verloc es un anarquista indolente que camufla sus actividades políticas bajo el velo de una vida doméstica y familiar. De acuerdo con Vladimir, un siniestro diplomático, durante los últimos años Verloc ha hecho bien poco para merecerse ni la más mínima cantidad de dinero pagado por su embajada y ya va siendo hora de provocar a la clase media. Verloc acepta la misión de Vladimir y pone una bomba en el Observatorio de Greenwich. Pero, después de la explosión, Verloc se da cuenta de que ha destruido bastante más que la complacencia de la burguesía inglesa.

A Londres do final do século 19 é um paraíso para exilados políticos de todos os tipos - refugiados, partidários, anarquistas. Verloc ganha a vida espionando para o governo russo, uma espécie de agente provocador, ao mesmo tempo em que fornece informações à polícia de Londres, especificamente ao inspetor-chefe Heat. Quando o novo embaixador russo exige que ele prove seu valor ou perca seu salário, Verloc desencadeia uma trágica cadeia de eventos que envolve sua bela e jovem esposa Winnie, seu irmão com deficiência intelectual Stevie e uma figura chamada Professor, cujo fascínio por explosivos e destruição faz dele a pessoa a quem recorrer quando Verloc precisa de uma bomba.
O Agente Secreto de Conrad é, pois, um dos melhores thrillers ingleses, um brilhante e intimista estudo sobre um assassino, tão doloroso quanto eruptivo. Um exercício magistral de suspense de espionagem, tenso e arrepiante. Contém suspense, intrigas e toques da turbulencia política que caracterizaria também uma das obras-primas de Conrad, Under Western Eyes, no qual, na mesma Rússia do século 19, Razumov, um jovem estudante que faria carreira na burocracia czarista, involuntariamente se envolve no assassinato de um funcionário público. ( )

Reason Read: 1001, TBR/ROOT
This book was written in 1906 by Joseph Conrad. Its themes are terrorism/anarchism, politics.Sounds like today doesn't it? It was set in London in 1886. Anarchism is a unified organization but a collection of ideas on rejection of government and authority. The character Adolf Verloc is a spy living in London. His front is London shopkeeper. The anarchist are Michaelis who spent time in prison and really isn't much danger in any way, Comrade Ossipon, and "The Professor". Although largely ineffectual as terrorists, their actions are known to the police. The group produces anarchist literature. The story explores the lone anarchist, the bomb maker as the extreme form. This type abandons conventional morality and are not constrained by morality or social order. It shows that the ones hurt by political violence are the innocent and another point in the book is that anarchists and the legal authority are two sides of the same coin. ( )

El agente secreto transcurre en Londres, a comienzos de siglo, en el mismo escenario brumoso que frecuentaba el doctos Jekyll y su aterrador alter ego, míster Hyde. No es menos tenebroso el anarquista Verloc, explotado por el siniestro diplomático Vladimir, enviado especial de un país oscuro y abstracto. Vladimir convence a Verloc para que cometa un atentado terrorista que vaya más allá de la muerte misma, que rezume "toda la insensatez de la blasfemia gratuita". A ellos se opone Heat, un tenaz inspector de la policía londinense, capaz de mantener la cabeza fría mientras los acontecimientos se precipitan, implacables, hacia un desenlace complejo, inesperado y brutal.

Some aspects of this novel seemed lamentably contemporary. A bomb goes off. A terrorist attack? On the surface, apparently so. But the man who carried it off was the secret agent of a foreign government. That country is never named, but the agent’s handler is named Vladimir, so we probably can’t go too far wrong were we to guess its identity. That government despises the nonchalant way the British government deals with its domestic anarchists, who, in turn, are dreamily ineffectual. The aim of the foreign government: to shock the British into a repressive stance. If the public is alarmed, so the reasoning goes, it will more readily accept a reduction in its civil liberties.
Sound familiar?
This novel is not as well known as Conrad’s works with colonial or maritime settings, and it met with a mixed reception when it came out. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though. The characters are well-drawn and the plot is well-constructed, departing from a strictly linear account to allow the narration to follow first this person, then that. This allows Conrad to show them pursuing individual agendas, often at cross-purposes. There is even a good dose of humor, particularly the hilarious portrayal of an imperious state secretary of venerable lineage.
Adepts of spy fiction will not fail to read this, said to be the book that created the genre, but I believe this would appeal to general readers as well. ( )