“UNSUSPECTED AND DEADLY”

CONRAD, Joseph. The Secret Agent. A Simple Tale. London: Methuen, 1907. Octavo, original red cloth gilt. $1100.

First edition of Conrad’s controversial masterpiece, his “brilliant novelistic study of terrorism” written at the dawn of the modern age.

Joseph Conrad's "Secret Agent remains the most brilliant novelistic study of terrorism as viewed from the blood-spattered outside." Written "during the first great terrorist wave of modern times," after the assassination of two American presidents and prominent leaders across France, Spain, Austria and Italy (New York Times), this "'Simple Tale' is a masterpiece of grim irony, concerned with anarchism in a densely evoked late 19th-century London… Conrad takes a melodramatic story but treats it with great subtlety, psychological insight and dry humor" (Parker, 30). With rear advertisements dated September 1907. As issued without dust jacket. Cagle A12a. Connolly, Modern Movement 15. Wise 17. Owner signature.

Text fine, a bit of staining from cloth to rear endpapers; toning and wear to original cloth. A very good copy.