The Secret Agent

Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski; 1857–1924) was an English writer of Polish origin, whose adventure and psychological novels paved the way for the phenomenon of European modernism. In his novel The Secret Agent: A Straight Story (1907), Conrad touches on the Russian theme, largely following F. M. Dostoevsky in its interpretation. Recruited by the embassy of an Eastern power (referring to the Russian Empire), a man of the London "underground" agrees to organize the explosion of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich - to depict an attempt on the very foundations of Western civilization and science for the sake of the international fight against terror. The author describes in detail how the police follow the trail of the criminal, creates expressive portraits of anarchists, and reveals the family tragedy of the title character. Filled with irony and black humor, the narrative at the same time conceals something deeply lyrical and even archetypal: behind the bright canvas of events emerges the tragedy of a loner tormented by mental suffering, the fatal game of a person with fate, the fatal loss of innocence of spirit, the precariousness and duality of existence. Edition in English.