The Secret Agent (Norton Critical Editions)

Book excerpt: “[A] masterly study of the inner workings of the disordered minds whose aim is destruction, violence, and the overturning of law and order by means of bombs.” —The (London) Observer (1907) This Norton Critical Edition includes: - The first English book edition of the novel (1907), accompanied by explanatory footnotes. - Four illustrations. - Contemporary sources that informed Conrad’s writing of the novel, including newspaper accounts of the “Greenwich Bomb Outrage,” articles from the anarchist press, earlier fictional treatments of the Martial Bourdin case (the inspiration for Adolph Verloc), and important texts related to anarchism and fin-de-siecle culture. - Seven wide-ranging critical essays by Ian Watt, Terry Eagleton, Martin Ray, Hugh Epstein, Gail Fincham, Peter Lancelot Mallios, and Michael Newton. - A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography.