"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, September 27, 2021

The Secret Agent (Joseph Conrad, 1907)

246 pages.

Joseph Conrad remains a favorite author.  So skilled at making characters multi-dimensional - not cartoonish, not good/bad.

Discussion between Assistant Commissioner and Chief Inspector - so good at describing organizational behavior.  A good example of the multi-dimensional characterizations.

The anarchists.  Humans.  True believers more or less; for some it's more of a job.  I like the way he handles them here; perhaps liked it better in Conrad's "Under Western Eyes".

Great description of the types of personalities that gravitate toward the far left (pp 42-43 in the Penguin paperback).  (Of course I don't think that's a great place to end up, so perhaps that's why I like the description so much!)

Mr. Verloc.  His wife (Winnie), and her mother and brother (Stevie, poor thing).  Chief Inspector Heat - competent - made me think of the similar character/role in two Dickens novels (Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House).

A good read.  Even if I didn't love the wind-up.

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)