Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

The story is set in London in 1886, the novel follows the plight of Verloc, a lazy and self-satisfied spy who loafs through evening meetings with anarchists who are all talk and no action.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer who wrote The Secret Agent because he was inspired by the Greenwich Bomb Outrage of 1894, when some French anarchist guy blew himself (and nothing else) up in the grounds of the Greenwich Observatory. This event got to Conrad, because it was so mysterious.

The Secret Agent is a three-part British espionage television drama serial based on the 1907 novel The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. The show stars Toby Jones, Vicky McClure, Stephen Graham, David Dawson and Ian Hart. The three-part series began airing on BBC One on 17 July 2016.
It is the fourth BBC adaptation of the novel, others having previously been made in 1967, 1972 and 1992.

Anyone up for a mystery in the month of Halloween?

I've read this quite a few times, and highly recommend it.

If you want to enjoy the Hitchcock version Sabotage (1936), it's free to watch on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm0xk...
Hitch also did a film called The Secret Agent but it was a different story altogether.


One of my favourite renditions of The Secret Agent was the 1996 film directed by Christopher Hampton and starring Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, Gérard Depardieu, Jim Broadbent - and featuring Christian Bale as the younger brother.

FYI:
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Joseph Conrad's novel of a century earlier was apparently widely read again, especially in Western intelligence circles.

This book is in a completely different style than Conrad's other books. There's a lot of action and suspense.

I read this ages ago, so would like to try it again with the group.

Trisha happy to have you join in on this one!

I have read 12% of the book and I'm finding it really slow. Does it pick up?

This is my second book by the author and Heart of Darkness didn't really work for me and hence I'm a little skeptical about the book.

Rosemarie can you help Shaina with her question?

Sorry I have no idea.

This isn't like Heart of Darkness, the characters are generally very sleazy in The Secret Agent, especially the main character.
I liked Heart of Darkness.
If The Secret Agent isn't working for you, Shaina, I suggest you take a break from it. It's not one of his best works.
But it does get suspenseful towards the end.

Thank you, Rosemarie! I think I will pause for a few days and then pick it up.

I finished reading this today. For approximately half of the book I disliked it as much as when I read it before, finding it so boring that I was close to abandoning it. But I found the second half more interesting, almost as if it had been written by a different author.

Boring for a Mystery is kind of odd.

That is very interesting Trisha. Glad you stuck it out to let us know for a surprising last half!

It will make your next read more exciting hopefully!