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    El agente secreto
    El agente secreto
    El agente secreto
    Ebook359 pages6 hours

    El agente secreto

    By Joseph Conrad

    3.5/5

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    Inquieta recordar que un paisaje terrorífico muy semejante al que se vivió en Londres el 7 de julio de 2005 apareció descrito hace casi un siglo por Joseph Conrad en El agente secreto. Esto podría significar dos cosas: una, que los artistas se adelantan, a veces fatalmente, a su tiempo, y otra, que la humanidad no avanza, sino da vueltas sobre sí misma, fiel a sus miserias. Al final, lo que Conrad vio en la absurda actividad terrorista fue a una “humanidad siempre tan trágicamente dispuesta a la autodestrucción”.

    LanguageEspañol
    PublisherLD Books - Lectorum
    Release dateNov 17, 2013
    Author

    Joseph Conrad

    Polish-born Joseph Conrad is regarded as a highly influential author, and his works are seen as a precursor to modernist literature. His often tragic insight into the human condition in novels such as Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent is unrivalled by his contemporaries.

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    Reviews for El agente secreto

    3.5/5

    32 ratings45 reviews

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    • 4/5
      To me, this is one of the darkest novels I have read in a long time. It is a tale of a simple man used by the "government" with disastrous results. The simplest are affected the most adversely. Clearly, the author held some significantly negative perceptions of the hierarchies within government, and their manipulations of the little people!
    • 3/5
      The Secret Agent is another Conrad mystery, great for descriptions of locale and depth of characters, but slow and weak with plot.Once again, there was no character whose fate readers might connect to or care about.
    • 4/5
      There may have been a time, long before this book was written, when its darkly comic vision of politics, revolutionaries, and law enforcement didn't apply. But I doubt there has been a time since. No one understood the dark intersection of politics, money, power, and love quite like Joseph Conrad. Since the moment that the man on the street gained enough power to have an opinion, politics (being all local) has wormed its way into every corner of our lives, and Conrad does a wonderful job of examining those motives. Unlike Sinclair or Rand, however, Conrad's style is not distant or didactic. In fact, the lens can often be so close as to slow the pacing. A very timely book, ahead of its time.
    • 3/5
      Bijwijlen hilarisch verhaal van een groepje anarchisten die in Londen een spraakmakende aanslag willen plegen op het Greenwich Observatorium. Moeilijk boek, niet zozeer om de gewone modernistische aanpak, wel om de verregaande introspectie (zeer traag). Nadruk op het kijken van Verloc naar Stevie, waarbij het maar heel traag tot hem doordringt welk nut de jongen voor hem kan hebben; Winnie kijkt heel anders
    • 3/5
      Far better than expected, some of the interior monologue was just fantastic. Extra points because terrorism, counter-espionage and the manipulation of public opinion thereon is so damn timely.
    • 2/5
      This was kind of interesting in one way that I didn't at all expect, and mostly uninteresting in the aspects that I expected to like. It is famous as a prototype of the political thriller genre, and certainly a lot of the familiar themes are there, but the narrative structure is completely different. To the extent that it fits into any genre, this book plays out more like a murder mystery, and even in that context the plot unfolds in a strange way. One major event happens about a quarter of the way through the book, and everything after that revolves around the characters (and the reader) trying to figure out what exactly that major event was. The novelty of Conrad's approach, or at least the divergence from my expectations, lent the book some interest to me; however, it wasn't enough to make this an especially compelling experience overall.

      What Conrad has to say about political extremism may have been good for the time, but I feel like our current geopolitical climate has led to some more nuanced explorations. At least, we've now had more time to think about terrorism. This book seems to hinge around the thesis that ideologies are little more than high-minded justifications for baser psychological impulses like greed and sexual inadequacy. I think there is quite a bit of truth to that, but it really isn't exciting or complex enough of an insight to successfully anchor an entire novel.
    • 3/5
      A pretty cool Conrad story, and refreshing in that it's not about some guy on a boat.
    • 3/5
      I wish I had read this in the early years after 9/11. While the characters in Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent" are not superficially the same as the characters that would figure into the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the subsequent events, the themes are eerily similar.

      As a piece of literature, though the book is an almost surreal set of disjointed pieces. Each chapter is a different view, through a different set of eyes, and only by looking at them all in turn does the mystery unfold. Methodically, Conrad unfolds each participants thoughts in slow motion, and while he demonstrates a command of the English language that is enviable, as well as a vocabulary that would be substantial for a native speaker and even more so for a sailor whose native tongue was Polish, the slow pace demands a serious reader's attention and patience. You get a full picture in the reading, but you look at every details that unfolds.

      And yet, plodding as the pace is, there are surprises. After pages of slow, deliberate character development, a sudden jolt of action with shift the plot, especially as the personal consequences of the underlying act of terror begins to turn the characters in on each other. In this regard, one sees echoes of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" or even Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" in the inescapable maelstrom that drags down all who are touched by violent men and violent actions.

      Is it heavy, then? Undeniably. Worth the effort? Without question, it is an interesting and fascinating read, and Conrad's prescience, decades before the onset of the terrorism's "golden age," is itself an argument for reading "The Secret Agent."

      Just don't pick it up expecting James Bond. He's not here.
    • 1/5
      Like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher. While this is one of the classics, it did not grab me in a couple hours of dedicated listening, so I put it aside. This is the third try, so I give up.
    • 3/5
      A solid book, and a good choice for people who want to read something by Conrad besides Heart of Darkness- not that the works have much in common.

      Conrad paints the world of secret agents as one joined because of financial interests, not ardent belief or nationalism or some other soft motivation. It's a bit cynical, but variety of perspectives is the spice of life. Governments here treat their agents as salaried employees expected to produce results, while the agents see the governments that pay them as witless bureaucrats who should stay silent and just keep forking over the money.

      The most interesting part of this book is the structure. You can piece together what has happened rather early in the book, and through the point of view of a detective character this suspicion is confirmed. The tension is created by waiting for the character who will take the news the worst to learn of it. Tension is ratcheted up by hinting at just how bad that character is going to take the news. Then there's a payoff that doesn't disappoint, even if it could have been arrived at faster without doing any harm to the narrative.

      The final section has some beautiful writing, with vivid descriptions of London. I was irritated that some threads, particularly that of the detective character, were left dangling. If The Secret Agent had been tighter and all the stories tied up this would have been a four star book, as it stands it's somewhere above three stars but not all the way there.
    • 3/5
      Not bad - not memorable. Considered by some as Conrad's best. If you want his best, read Nostromo.
    • 4/5
      An enticing read filled with grotesque and somewhat comical figures. Conrad definitely understood politics and this is a well-written, bitingly satiric look at both sides of a major issue during his day. You need to understand, or at least quickly skim, the historical context if you are not going to become lost while reading. Anarchy was quite a confusing movement which was being embraced by many in the working class. Conrad definitely feels no pity for anarchists, but he doesn't spare the government or police from the bite of his pen, either. I really enjoyed the philosophical bits in which he deconstructed the very ideas of anarchy and criminality. One can see why the book would have been highly controversial at the time. An unsettling feature of the book is that contemporary readers can see how manufactured terrorist events and governmental squabbling have not changed much in the past century. Certain newspaper headlines might seem familiar to readers who keep up with current events. I do have a few issues with the novel from a disability studies perspective, namely that Stevie is an archetypal character sent into this fictional world to teach all of the able people a lesson, but hey... I did find myself laughing quite a few times throughout; how can you not find Ossipon and the rest of the gang hilarious? Certainly worth the read.
    • 4/5
      I read Heart of Darkness back in my school days, but I am pretty sure this is the first Conrad novel I have read. I guess I am a bit disappointed. Conrad built up such a nice configuration, but doesn't then put it to full use. What might Vladimir have done to cover up his own tracks? What if Verloc had turned aside more quickly and then had to figure out how to proceed. The thing is too much of an open and shut morality tale. What makes these things so much more sordid is their lasting character, the cover-ups of the cover-ups. What could Kafka have done with this material. OK, Kafka would go to the other extreme! This is more like a novella. Things just don't developed fully. It is like a snapshot of a world, more than a movie. Still, it is a rich snapshot, and surely in its time and place it opened up a window onto a very unusual world, not often seen in literature. Nowadays, though, it's too common. Still, Conrad is a master. The book is worth reading.
    • 4/5
      It took a while until I could immerse myself in the story. I liked the quiet style for a strong content. First, the reader is introduced to the secret agent as a bore. Despite the fact that he does not spray out of power, his thoughts and actions are very awake. He has the talent to take the people for himself and things to turn so that he comes out fine. But he has the bill not made with his wife, who does not trust him. Likewise, the members of his association to turn away from him and one of them tried to gain profit for himself.I liked the profound story.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing. About anarchist terrorists in London around the end of the 19th century, but one hears little concrete of either anarchism or terrorism, only about the not too interesting characters. One of the characters is supposed to have been an inspiration for the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski.
    • 5/5
      A few years ago I began a personal tradition of starting each year's reading with a reread of a Joseph Conrad novel. This year it was The Secret Agent, a book I did a massive amount of research about during my grad school days. The book, set in London in late 19/early 20th century, tells the story of Adolph Verloc, who is too indolent to work and so makes his living in the employ of an Eastern European embassy, spying on London's anarchists. When Verloc's employer puts pressure on him to create an anarchist outrage so that a too tolerant English society will decide to crack down on the anarchists in their midst, Verloc's troubles begin. We also follow at times the anarchists themselves and the police. But this is really only the framework for a broader portrayal of the ways in which Conrad saw the growing industrialization and impersonality of society as a destroyer of hope, incentive and emotion and as a promoter of alienation and despair. At the center of these themes are Verloc's home life, and especially the ways in which his wife has married him as a form of personal compromise, away from happiness but for security for herself, her indigent mother and her mentally challenged brother. But Conrad's themes are equally evident in his descriptions of the city itself, its filth, slime and darkness. Also, very unusual for its time was Conrad's bending of time, showing us important episodes out of chronological order in ways that make us feel that time itself is standing still.Conrad had nothing but contempt for anarchists, and to a lesser degree for politics as a whole. He saw anarchists as parasites, people looking to tear down, but not to contribute to the daily business of getting along and getting on with life. Conrad, after all, came of age on merchant ships, a world where each man depended for his life on the other fellow doing his job all the time, and where even the most menial task could be crucial. But that level of contempt is the book's flaw, as Conrad let his antipathy run away with him, here. Consequently, the anarchists come off as mere caricatures, and the narrative loses power when they take center stage. As always, though, I am in love with Conrad's turn of a phrase and with his powers of observation.
    • 5/5
      Despite its name, this is not a James Bond type story. First of all, it is set in 1880s London and involves a small group of mostly ineffectual anarchists. Secondly, the primary characteristic of the main "secret agent" is laziness! Conrad gives us wonderful portraits of these disaffected men, each of whom is disgruntled for different reasons, as well as the rest of the Verloc family.

      As I was reading this, I kept having the sensation of deja vu. I knew that I had never read this before, but certain aspects were extremely familiar to me and in one important part I knew in advance what was coming. Finally I realized that Alfred Hitchcock had based one of his early movies - Sabotage - on this book! I am a big fan of Hitchcock (and have seen Sabotage more than once), but although his movie is quite exciting (even more thrills than the book), it doesn't capture Conrad's characters and has a completely different (and more conventional) ending. The book features complex characters and motivations which are perhaps slower and less exciting but will stay with me longer.
    • 3/5
      ?Curiosity being one of the forms of self-revelation, a systematically incurious person remains always partly mysterious. The Secret Agent was first printed in 1907 and is based on actual events, the attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory in 1894. Mr. Verloc, who runs a pornographic shop, is summoned to a foriegn Embassy in London. There he is revealed to be a secret agent. There is a new man at the Embassy and he believes that Mr Verloc is no longer being productive as a spy. The new man, Mr Vladimir, sees himself as a man of action and suggests that Mr. Verloc should set off a bomb in some scientific place to prove his worth and to try and shake Britain's perceived liberal attitude.Mr. Verloc is married to a beautiful, younger woman and lives with her, her mother and her simple minded brother Stevie whom is cared for devotedly by his sister Mrs Verloc. He holds meetings at his shop with fellow anarchists.When a man blows up in Greenwich Park Mr. Verloc is believed to be the victim but it is actually his brother-in-law who has died. The police also are immediately suspicious of Mr. Verloc, and a Chief Inspector Heat visits the shop and informs the unaware Mrs Verloc that her brother has died. She is naturally devastated and blames her husband as well with shocking results.In many respects this is a very simple plot about an attack on a British building concocted by a foreign power and packed with characters that are allegorical in nature, the wily foreigner Mr Vladimir, the meddling policeman Chief Inspector Heat and his ambitious boss, a haughty politician in Sir Ethelred, yet it is one full of powerful emotions. Love, pride and duplicity to name but a few. However, perhaps the most important emotion is conceit or maybe self-worth. Mr Vladimir believes himself a man of action but is obviously rocked when his part in the bomb plot is exposed, Heat believes he knows and can prove who the offender is without bothering to look at the evidence but this idea of inflated self-worth is particularly evident in Mr Verloc. He seems comfortable in his comfy married life but his world is rocked when his value as an informer is questioned and when his part in the bombing is revealed he believes that he is important enough to cause major embarrassment to the respective authorities yet his is but a minor role in a bigger game. This point is nicely illustrated as two of his fellow anarchists are seen walking down the crowded street alone, "one endeavouring to secure himself in the conviction that 'He was a force' with the power to regenerate the world, the other with his self-conception in ruins".So saying all that why did I not give it a higher rating. To be perfectly honest I felt that the author rather over-indulged in the minutia of minor details which stopped rather than enhanced the flow of the story for my taste. That said it is still a worthy read.
    • 3/5
      At the turn of the 20th century, Adolf Verloc is a London shopkeeper. He has a wife (Winnie), a mother-in-law, and a brother-in-law (Stevie) with some sort of mental disability. Verloc is also a secret agent for a foreign government. He isn't called on to do much ? just pass on the occasional bit of information and make contact with new arrivals who come as customers to his shop. This changes when he is called to the Embassy and ordered to execute a bombing attack on Greenwich. The bombing goes wrong, and everything falls apart for Verloc.The plot sounds like it should be an exciting book. It isn't. Most of the book is filled with the thoughts of various characters ? Verloc, his fellow anarchists, various police officials, Verloc's wife and her family. Their thoughts are occasionally interrupted by the comments or actions of other characters. This book was surprisingly difficult to follow in audio, even with a talented reader that I would otherwise enjoy listening to. I don't think I would like it any better in print. Hitchcock made a film version of the book, and I think I might like it better.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. The modernity of it surprised me. Conrad had a good grasp of human nature. His rich prose brings late 19th century London to life, and the intrigues of the life of a secret agent are as well drawn as anything written by John Le Carr? almost 100 years later.
    • 5/5
      Like Heart of Darkness, Secret Agent:

      - Is deeply cynical
      - And heavily allegorical
      - And ends with a bang (although this book also begins with one).

      I guessed a big part of the plot pretty quickly, so I guess that's a negative...although I'm not sure it was supposed to be hard to guess.

      It's about a cheerful, indolent secret agent who's pressed by his superiors to do something big to prove his worth. Complications ensue. And there's a guy who goes around strapped with enough explosives to blow everyone around him to smithereens, and a little rubber bulb in his pocket to trigger it, so no one has the balls to arrest him. I love that guy.
    • 4/5
      Florence and Edward are newlyweds...this story takes place on their wedding night. Ian McEwan's writing is really good. The final scene between Florence and Edward on Chesil Beach was superb. It wasn't clear which way their relationship would go; what was clear was the difference each word or sentence they spoke to each other made. To me, that one scene made the whole book worthwhile, and turned an otherwise ordinary plot into a masterpiece. As the Economist reviewer said, this story showed "the entire course of a life changed--by doing nothing."
    • 4/5
      Mr. Verloc is a Russian secret agent keeping a shop in London where he lives with his wife, her infirm mother, and her idiot brother. Mr. Verloc has become comfortable and lazy in his role, but the Russian ambassador insists on action. Verloc puts together a bomb plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory and implicate the anarchists, but things go disastrously wrong. This novel is said to be the precursor of the espionage thriller. While it was very subdued compared to the modern thriller, I found it to be pretty engrossing. It was interesting to see the motivations the characters had for their actions and the how the unforeseen affects of the bombing played out in so many lives.
    • 3/5
      It seemed very well written ... but very hard to follow. I read two or three books at one time and I think it would be best to read this one cover to cover alone. I really had a hard time getting through it.
    • 4/5
      This is a random read from the "1001 books you should read before you die"-list, so I knew nothing about this book other than its title. I started reading, and from the start I really didn't like it. In fact, I actively disliked it. I found the first half of the book to be a muddled and messy blend of politics, social commentary, satire and attempts at humour. As standalone elements all of these would probably have held up, but the way in which they were blended together made the story confusing, really hard to read, and disagreeable to me. Considering how little was actually happening, it was baffling how hard it was to keep up with it.Then everything changed.The mood of the book changed drastically. The relatively lighthearted, almost superficial, story turned dark. It became intense, emotional and gripping. One passage in particular, which takes up most of the second half of the book, had me completely gripped. The situation isn't particularly dramatic, but the way in which it is recounted is extremely immersive. After reading it I felt like I'd been holding my breath for a few hours. A lot of time is spent describing a very sort passage of time, yet not a word is wasted. One of the characters is in an extremely fragile emotional state, and as they get closer and closer to the edge, I found myself dreading what would happen when they fell off it. But I had to know. I had to continue reading. Way past when I should have gone to sleep.Concluding anything about this book is very difficult. Perhaps the start of the book was necessary for the rest of it to be so good. Maybe the contrast in mood and tone is what made the book have such an impact on me. I'm not sure whether I'd recommend it or not. I really, really didn't enjoy the first part of the book, and I'm finding it hard to describe how much I enjoyed the last part. Take from that what you will.
    • 4/5
      The story starts as a comedy and ends in tragedy. Its a story of Mr.Verloc, a married man with a small bookstand. He is also a secret agent employed by a foreign govrnment and works with the revolutionaries and anarchists in the country. One day he is summoned by the new ambassador to the foreign embassy and is ridiculed upon his appearance and given a task to create dread in the common populance by blowing up the Greenwich park. He consults his anarchist friends and goes ahead with a plan that ends up hurting his innocent family.A beautifully narrated story. Conrad has a style of mixing comedy and serious events in the story.
    • 4/5
      I think Conrad was like Carver (you never thought you'd see that comparison, did you?): he should have stuck with the short form, which in Conrad's case was the novella. I don't think you could call anything Conrad wrote "short". This was a great story stretched out over much too many pages.
    • 3/5
      A pretty good thriller. but the reader has to wade through hundreds of pages of Conrad's thick prose to get the story. The cops and the anarchists are clearly boobs, and so too are most of the central characters. Doctorow's preface is very worthwhile.
    • 3/5
      Reading The Secret Agent is work. It takes effort to follow Conrad's unconventional use of English. It takes effort to understand where the plot is going. I'll be honest?it takes effort to pick the book up of the night stand and read another chapter!Just when I was preparing to dismiss this book, I made it to the last three chapters. If the whole book was as psychologically profound and tense as these chapters, Conrad would have had something!In the end, it was too little too late. I can't recommend reading this book. I can't even understand why it made it into the ranks of Everyman's Library.
    • 4/5
      The first great spy thriller; the granddaddy of George Smiley and the like. Great! Could have done without the film with Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams, however. :)

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    El agente secreto - Joseph Conrad

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