The Secret Agent
First published 1907 · English · 242 pages
- Drama
- Thriller and suspense
Set in London in the 1880s, this novel centres on Mr Verloc, who keeps a small shop and lives quietly with his wife Winnie and her dependent brother. He is also a paid informer among a loose circle of anarchists, and a foreign embassy pressures him into a scheme meant to provoke a government crackdown. As police and politicians move in, the lives of the household are drawn into the consequences. Darkly ironic and sharply observed, the book is an early classic of the political thriller and a bleak study of terrorism, cynicism and domestic life.
Quotes
Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury.
To the destruction of what is.
The cabman looked at the pieces of silver, which, appearing very minute in his big, grimy palm, symbolised the insignificant results which reward the ambitious courage and toil of a mankind whose day is short on this earth of evil.
The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make themselves the accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of their houses to starve in ditches. And they have the political power still, if they only had the sense to use it for their preservation.