10 h 15 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a fogbound London shop, a man who wants a comfortable life keeps secrets that threaten his family.
Adolf Verloc runs a small shop in Soho, but his real work belongs to a foreign embassy. When the mocking Mr Vladimir demands a shocking outrage, Verloc’s comfortable double life comes under pressure. At home, Winnie Verloc wants security above all: a safe place for her gentle, easily distressed brother, Stevie.
A bomb in Greenwich Park brings Chief Inspector Heat and the Assistant Commissioner into the hunt. Each approaches the case differently, and neither moves through a world of honest answers. Joseph Conrad joins crime, espionage, and family life in a darkly funny London where revolutionaries talk, officials guard their reputations, and small decisions carry terrible weight.
What you’ll discover
- Secrets behind the shopfront Step into Brett Street, where odd bottles and cheap papers conceal Verloc’s other work.
- A sister’s watchful love Meet Winnie, whose bargain for security rests on keeping her vulnerable younger brother safe.
- Revolution with a bitter smile Watch Conrad expose the gap between grand political talk and the people doing it.
- The frightening Professor Encounter a shabby bomb maker whose contempt for others gives his presence a chilling force.
- Order under suspicion Explore how police and revolutionaries depend on secrets while looking down on ordinary lives.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like slow, ironic crime fiction, London history, and characters seen with a cold eye. It is also a good first Conrad. If you want fast action and a hero to cheer for, you may find it less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quiet shop hides a double life
- An embassy demands an outrage
- The revolutionaries talk, and do little
- The Professor carries his own protection
- Winnie made a bargain for Stevie
- A bomb goes off and the police begin to hunt
- The Assistant Commissioner looks past the official story
- What the novel says about anarchy and order
- How Conrad tells it: irony, fog and time
Who’s who
- Adolf VerlocA heavy, idle Soho shopkeeper who secretly works for a foreign embassy and informs for the police, and who wants only a comfortable life.
- Winnie VerlocVerloc's quiet, watchful wife, who married for security and whose deepest wish is to keep her younger brother safe.
- StevieWinnie's gentle, easily distressed younger brother, who lives with the Verlocs and cannot bear to see anyone suffer.
- Mr VladimirThe clever, mocking first secretary of a foreign embassy, who wants a shocking outrage in London to push the English police into action.
- Chief Inspector HeatA capable detective who knows the anarchist world well, protects his informers, and wants to solve the case his own way.
- The Assistant CommissionerHeat's restless superior, a former colonial officer who distrusts easy answers and decides to look into the matter himself.
- The ProfessorA small, bitter bomb maker who carries explosive on his person and despises the talkers around him.
- Comrade OssiponA former medical student and pamphlet writer in Verloc's circle, fond of theories and of living off others.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Large print hardcover
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The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
by Joseph Conrad· 1907
A London shopkeeper’s secret work brings danger to his family.
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Language: English
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A quiet shop hides a double life
The story opens in Brett Street, a narrow street in Soho, in a shop that sells doubtful goods. The window shows photographs of dancing girls, odd bottles, and cheap papers. Some of the customers are young men, and some are older men in shabby coats. The shop is kept by Adolf Verloc, a heavy man who looks sleepy and who prefers to lie in bed until late in the day.
Verloc is more than a shopkeeper. He is a secret agent in the pay of a foreign embassy, and his code name in its files is Delta. He is also known to the London police, because he passes them information from time to time. Conrad makes clear early that Verloc takes money from two sides and is loyal to neither.
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The author
Joseph Conrad
1857–1924 · Polish-British novelist
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British writer born in Berdychiv, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He worked at sea before settling in England. He wrote in English. His works include Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907).
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What is The Secret Agent about?
It tells of Adolf Verloc, a Soho shopkeeper who spies for a foreign embassy and informs for the police. When the embassy orders him to arrange a bomb attack at Greenwich, his family and his double life come under threat.
Is The Secret Agent based on a true story?
It is fiction, but Conrad drew on a real event, the 1894 bombing near the Greenwich Observatory. He also used the atmosphere of anarchist circles in London. The characters and the plot are his own invention.
Why is it called A Simple Tale?
The subtitle is ironic. The story looks like a plain crime tale, but it is layered with deceit, satire and tragedy. Conrad uses the word simple to hint that the truth behind events is never simple.
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