10 h 15 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 15 minPaperback · 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.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who enjoy spy stories with a sense of humour, the atmosphere of a great city, and sharp portraits of flawed people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quiet shop hides a spy's double life
- A diplomat demands a bomb against science
- Revolutionary talkers fill the back parlour
- A bomb maker trusts only his own will
- A detective prefers thieves to anarchists
- A new chief goes looking for the truth
- Stevie's pity meets a cruel world
- Spies and police feed one another's fear
- A respectable home runs on not looking
- Irony and fog make the simple tale
Who’s who
- Adolf VerlocA lazy, comfortable shopkeeper and paid embassy spy who wants only to keep his home, his income and his wife's love.
- Winnie VerlocHis calm wife, who guards her young brother above all else and prefers not to look beneath the surface of things.
- StevieWinnie's gentle, easily excited brother, who draws circles for hours and cannot bear to see anyone or anything hurt.
- Mr VladimirA witty First Secretary at the embassy who wants a shocking outrage in London and bullies Verloc into providing one.
- Chief Inspector HeatA proud police expert on anarchists who keeps a private informer and wants a neat, convenient solution to the case.
- The Assistant CommissionerHis thoughtful, restless superior, who dislikes desk work and decides to investigate in disguise.
- Comrade OssiponA burly anarchist writer called the Doctor, who trusts science and charm and likes to live off women's savings.
- The ProfessorA frail bomb maker who carries explosive in his coat and despises everyone, wanting only a perfect detonator.
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The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
by Joseph Conrad · 1907
A Soho shopkeeper is told by a diplomat to bomb Greenwich Observatory, and his quiet home begins to shake.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What would you do if a foreign diplomat ordered you to blow up an observatory? Mr Verloc, who keeps a dim little shop in Soho, hears exactly that on a bright London morning.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A quiet shop hides a spy's double life
Verloc's shop in Soho has faded photographs in the window, sealed yellow envelopes and cheap newspapers. Almost nobody buys anything. A badly cracked bell clatters at the slightest touch, and Verloc hurries out from the back parlour to sell some worthless object.
Behind the counter sits his wife Winnie, calm and neat, with a gaze that gives nothing away. Her stout mother lives upstairs, and so does her brother Stevie, a gentle, easily frightened young man who draws circles for hours. Winnie guards him like a mother. Verloc tells the household his work is political in a way. In truth he is a spy paid by a foreign embassy, who reports on the anarchists drifting through his back parlour. Winnie asks no questions, and he offers no answers.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-agent-a-simple-tale.
Conrad, J. (2026). The secret agent: A simple tale. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-agent-a-simple-tale (Original work published 1907)
Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-agent-a-simple-tale.
@book{conrad2026secret,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-secret-agent-a-simple-tale},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is The Secret Agent about?
It follows Mr Verloc, a London shopkeeper who secretly spies for a foreign embassy. When a diplomat orders him to provoke an outrage, a bomb plot, a police inquiry and a family's quiet life all collide.
Who are the main characters in The Secret Agent?
The central figures are Adolf Verloc, his wife Winnie and her brother Stevie. Around them move the diplomat Mr Vladimir, Chief Inspector Heat, the Assistant Commissioner, the anarchist Ossipon and the bomb maker known as the Professor.
Is The Secret Agent based on a true story?
Conrad published it in 1907 and set it in London in earlier years. He was inspired by a real explosion near Greenwich Observatory, but the characters and the household drama are his own invention.
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).
More by Joseph Conrad
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