Conrad, Joseph

New York. 1983. November 1983. Signet/New American Library. 2nd Printing of This Signet Classic Edition. Very Good in Wrappers With A Tear Mark From A Price Sticker on The Front Cover. 0451518047. Introduction By Frederick R. Karl. 240 pages. paperback. CE1804. keywords: Signet Classic Paperback Literature England 20th Century. FROM THE PUBLISHER - This extraordinary novel by one of the greatest of storytellers is both a chillingly prophetic examination of terrorism and the literary precursor of the espionage thrillers of such writers as Graham Greene and John Le CarrE. The scene is turn - of - the - century London. The characters include idealistic revolutionaries, ruthless ideologues, bureaucratic police, and at the center, an undercover, counter - revolutionary mole whose mission is to provoke the radical group he has penetrated into a monstrous act of violence that will bring about its own destruction. In this world of plot and counterplot, where identities are deceptions and glowing slogans mask savage realities, each character becomes an ever more helpless puppet of forces beyond control - until one woman's love, grief, and. anger rips through the entire fabric of the conspiracy with a passionate, profoundly human act. A key work of twentieth - century art and consciousness, THE SECRET AGENT is, in the words of critic F. R. Leavis in The Great Tradition, 'one of Conrad's supreme masterpieces . one of the unquestioned classics of the first order that he added to the English novel. inventory #31497 ISBN: 0451518047.