The Secret Agent (Version 3)


Read by Peter Dann

(4.2 stars; 15 reviews)

Taking as his inspiration the historical accidental death by explosion of an anarchist outside the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park, London in 1894, Conrad tells the dark tale of Adolf Verloc, an indolent, double-dealing secret agent of a foreign government pressured into committing an act of "shocking senselessness" against astronomy, of all things. As the novel bleakly, but with occasional streaks of humour, sifts the hidden motives of London anarchists and revolutionaries, police and government officials, and indeed of Verloc and his own immediate family, nearly all emerge, in their own way, as secret agents of a kind, not quite who they purport to be. (Summary by Peter Dann) (10 hr 14 min)

Chapters

Chapter 1 17:50 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 2 1:03:41 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 3 41:25 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 4 35:25 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 5 47:45 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 6 Part 1 13:35 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 6 Part 2 46:31 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 7 33:21 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 8 1:00:02 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 9 Part 1 16:01 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 9 Part 2 44:29 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 10 28:53 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 11 Part 1 34:30 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 11 Part 2 41:47 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 12 Part 1 41:29 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 12 Part 2 27:53 Read by Peter Dann
Chapter 13 19:26 Read by Peter Dann

Reviews

Clueless, dingy people operating in a dingy world


(3.5 stars)

From the very beginning of this novel one gets the sense Conrad wants to expose the hypocrisy, incompetence and lunacy of contemporary communists and anarchists in London which he treats as one and the same. The novel winds through a tail where even a base act of terrorism shows this cabal’s preposterous incompetence. He also takes a small swipe at polite society’s indulgence of such useless petty minds which turns out to be a curiosity of the novel and nothing more. The dingy cast of characters and their petty lives meandering in their dingy world becomes a little overwrought by the time the story fizzles to its miserable endings. I was amazed to find out the various and subsequent artistic and influential treatments sourced from this novel including many plays, three movies and Ted Kazinsky the unibomber, Who sited this novel as his raison d'etre. Peter Dann’s languid voice is a fitting narration for such a tale as this. Is it worth a listen? Perhaps as a curiosity, yes.

Good book


(5 stars)

I really enjoyed this recording and the story grew on me!