Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century (46)
Based on an actual plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, this is
one of the first novels to deal with terrorism. A hapless group
of anarchists is prodded into the bombing, which destroys them, rather
than their intended target.
Conrad has created a memorable cast of characters & deftly demonstrates
the senseless nature of political violence. But this is a novel whose
impact has been dulled by the events of our bloody century. Where
once the bombing of Greenwich Observatory would have been a shocking crime,
after the assassination attempts on Prime Ministers and other IRA attacks,
it seems almost comical.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (B)
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-etext
-Bio
(American Institute of Polish Culture homepage)
-Lycos
Guide to Joseph Conrad
-Conrad's
Darkness (V. S. NAIPAUL, NY Review of Books)
-English
455: Colloquium on Joseph Conrad (Dr. Richard Ruppel: Department of
English)
-ESSAY
: Conspiracy and Concealment in Nostromo (Hong-Shu Teng)
-ESSAY
: Joseph Conrad Never Jumped (Frank Kermode, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW of Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives
by Frederick R. Karl,
Moralist
of Exile (V.S. PRITCHETT, NY Review of Books)
-REVIEW of Culture and Imperialism by Edward
W. Said
Lost
Paradises (MICHAEL WOOD, NY review of Books)
-Literary
Research Guide: Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924 )
-ESSAY:
Twentieth Century Political Novels: Structure, form and narrative technique
in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (Are Sauren)
-ESSAY
: Chasing After Conrad's Secret Agent : It's the archetypal novel about
terrorists. And everyone's getting it wrong (Judith Shulevitz, Slate)
If you liked The Secret Agent, try:
Brink, Andre
-An Act of Terror
Camus, Albert
-The
Rebel
Hynes, James
-The Wild Colonial Boy
LeCarre, John
-The Little Drummer Girl
Lessing, Doris
-The
Good Terrorist
O'Flaherty, Liam
-The
Informer
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