book review - The Secret Agent

This is an odd book to be reading right now. Joseph Conrad might be credited with writing one of the first novels to cover the subject of terrorism but it feels all too familiar in this age of suicide bombers.

The irony with The Secret Agent is that The Professor, who is rigged and boldly talks about being prepared to blow himself up, never does it while an innocent simpleton stumbles and trips blowing himself to pieces.

Living not too far away from Greenwich Park and enjoying strolls through its tree-lined avenues it is odd to think of someone choosing to target the observatory for a terrorist attack.

But maybe it is never intended to be chosen with Mr Verloc being intimidated into making some sort of outrage to ensure he keeps the cheques coming from the embassy that pay him for being a secret agent. Verloc is the main character in the story flanked with his wife Winnie and his brother-in-law Stevie.

Back in his past Verloc once tipped off a foreign dignitary over the possibility of some sort of assassination attempt and ever since then has been dining out on the performance. But with a change of guard at the embassy he is challenged to show his worth by exploiting his position as a leading light in anarchist circles in London. Verloc feels blackmailed and disappears from view while he thinks about the consequences.

Conrad starts to weave the story around the encounter and takes the reader into a pub where two anarchists, nicknamed The Doctor and The Professor, are talking about the power that comes from the knowledge that you could blow yourself up. The Professor is rigged permanently to blow. But he finds it hard to believe someone has beaten him to it when The Doctor produces the paper to show that someone has blown themselves up in the park.

Conrad manages to leave you wondering if it was Verloc for a while before the identity of the simpleton Stevie is revealed. The reader finds out only just before his sister and her grief leads to the murder of Verloc. All of the secret agents protestations of innocence laying the responsibility at the door of the embassy count for nothing.

With Verloc dead the story fizzles out but Winnie tries to take refugee in the arms of the Doctor but once he sees the dead Verloc he is intent on escaping her clutches. Left alone she commits suicide leaving those who knew the couple shell shocked and undermined by the experience. The power of the bomber has been tested and found wanting.

This is sometimes a book that is difficult to follow because of the style but the message is as up to date as ever. Here is a morality tale of the costs of taking lives and the results on those who have been involved in that process. The outcome is that innocent people die and even those that believe they are in the right are plagued with self-doubt, recriminations and a sense of futility. A bomb might make a temporary outrage but does not do much more other than main and kill innocent people who had to be killed for some one, and some radical group, to make a point.

The Secret Agent - post V

Should have posted this last night but things intervened so here is the last post on The Secret Agent with just a review to come.

Having stumbled back to his home after the bombing in Greenwich Park Mr Verloc faces the challenge of explaining to his wife why her brother died. The problem is that his wife is not listening and she realises that the man in front of her is a killer who took the life of her brother.

The more he moans on about the embassy and the pressure he was under to carry out the bombing the less he gets through to her and in the end is rewarded with a knife in the stomach. Mrs Verloc then stumbles around in shock and rushes out of the house and into the arms of one of the other members of the anarchist group. The Doctor, as he is known, has a weakness with women and announces all too quickly that he has always loved her. But after having been introduced to her husband's corpse he starts to panic and although appearing to go along with her plans to flee to the continent jumps off the train and leaves her to travel to the continent alone.

The chronology then skips with the Doctor talking to the bomb carrying Professor sharing a rather frank and bitter exchange before pulling out a newspaper report detailing the suicide of Mrs Verloc who threw herself off the cross channel ferry. As he stumbles off to the wreck of his life the bitter professor shuffles off through the streets with his bomb under his coat. His power is ignored but his arrogance remains and his stumbling off into the dark sums up the contrast between those who choose to use their own suicide as a weapon and the masses around them who have no such concept.

A review will follow soon...

The Secret Agent - post IV

The consequences of the suicide bombing come home to roost in quite dramatic style. As the two senior policemen fight it out to protect and charge their favourite anarchists Verloc has to face his wife.

Once she overhears that Stevie her brother is dead she goes into a trance and no matter what excuses Verloc gives it doe nothing to get through to her. In a brilliant piece of writing Conrad has Verloc arguing exactly as a man usually does trying to justify the unjustifiable by making himself out to be the victim.

Despite Verloc’s warning that he will spend time in prison and that he has been a victim of the bullying of Mr Vladimir in the embassy his wife realises she is now free and gets dressed to go out. She gets stopped by her husband who is lounging on the sofa and she then picks up the knife and kills him convinced that she is doing away with her brother’s murderer.

The entire scene of Verloc and his wife is not only believable but shows how easy it is for the wrong words and attitude to inflame grief and lead to something much more dangerous.

Meanwhile the police are focused on smashing the spy ring and see Verloc as a sprat that will lead them to the whale. But with him lying on a sofa in Soho with a knife in his gut is he going to be any good to anyone?

Final chunk tomorrow...

The Secret Agent - post III

They were discussing Conrad on Radio 4’s Front Row programme tonight pointing out the similarities between his wiring and Henry James. Have to confess I have never read any of the latter’s work but there is still time to sneak on in this year.

The more you read The Secret Agent the more there are similarities with Under Western Eyes, which is set in St Petersburg.

But where that book was a relatively straightforward narrative this one moves backwards and forwards with the bomb going off in Greenwich before the back-story is filled out. There are two stories running in parallel with the police officers trying to crack the case both having different views of who is to blame and meanwhile it emerges that it was Verloc’s brother-in-law the simpleton Stevie who tripped over a root and blew himself up.

For Verloc’s wife the news is all too much as she is still getting over the fact her mother has moved out begging a charity to put her into an alms house. She overhears her husband not only admitting to being the second man in Greenwich Park but also admitting to coming clean about his involvement as a secret agent.

Although the bombing has been a failure it still managed to cause an outrage as demanded by the Embassy paying Verloc but there is no sense of victory just disaster back at the shop. For Mrs Verloc, the really innocent party, there is a sense of blame because she suggested that her excitable brother Stevie went out for walks with her husband and then suggested that he go and stay with a well known anarchist.

Quite what will happen now the details of the bombing are starting to become clear is nowhere certain and that is because Conrad has already made things far from clear with the movement back and forth in time.

More tomorrow…

The Secret Agent - post II

This book could have been written now with the emphasis on suicide bombers and the debate about the importance of instilling terror in a population. Once past the scene setting this starts to open up as a novel that has a great deal of depth. Conrad is standing back showing not just the philosophy and actions of the anarchists but also the Police who are struggling to understand them.

The case for bombing is explained, with it being a chance to shatter complacency and in the case of the suicide bomber show the power and commitment of an individual. But there is also the misery of being able to only threaten people with a bomb in the pocket – the case of the shady explosives supplier The Professor.

Although it is far from comic there is a certain humour about how inept both sides are and even the superintendent refers to it as a game which both sides will play to a set of rules that both appear to operate to.

On a personal note, with Greenwich just down the road, it is odd to be reading about stations and locations I know reasonably well with the bombers coming off the train at Maze Hill before one of them stumbles over the roots of a tree in the park and blows himself to pieces.

The assumption is that Veloc has died because he was the one who asked for the explosives but that is never clearly stated and as the story develops you suspect someone else has been the victim of the bomb in a tin. The address leads them back to Veloc's shop but before anyone gets there there are suspicions among the police about which anarchists might have been responsible.

There is a message that resonates here about the naivety by the police and some of the anarchists about just how far some people are prepared to go. The difference between someone who shouts about something but never does it and someone prepared to blow themselves up is a psychological one that exists today.

More tomorrow...

The Secret Agent - post I

It takes a while to get into this book. The story doesn’t flow from the start and it is difficult working out just exactly what is happening with the main character Mr Veloc appearing to run a shop and be in the pay of some embassy as a secret agent. The shop, which sells among other things pornographic pictures mainly operates at night with the aid of some low burning gas lamps.

Mr Veloc is married to a woman that gave him the opportunity to gain a house with some furniture but also a live-in mother in law and a useless brother-in-law who lost his last job after setting off some fireworks in the stairwell.

But life seems okay with Mr Veloc moving around his world in firm command. That is until he is called into the embassy and has an encounter with Mr Vladimir who accuses him of doing next to nothing and demands an outrage in the next month suggesting that he blows up the Meridian in Greenwich to try and stir up the apathetic middle classes.

Despite hanging around with terrorists and anarchists the idea of the bombing throws Mr Veloc off his usual assured path.he gets together with the terrorists and thinkers that are part of his anarchist group and hoes to bed depressed that all they are full of is hot air. The only problem is that his brother-in-law has overheard some of the more descriptive oratory and is so wound up he can hardly sleep.

More tomorrow...

In celebration of Conrad's 150th

With all the focus on Joseph Conrad's 150th anniversary, with a good piece in The Guardian at the weekend about him it only seemed right to start reading one of his books this week. One of the main ones left that I have not read so far but was sitting onm my bookshelf with the old price of two shillings inside is The Secret Agent. The first post on it will come tonight but already its possible to say that the difference between the dialgoue and descriptions of a 20th century novel and from the 19th is that it is hard to read the latter at the same speed.

book of books - Under Western Eyes

This book by Joseph Conrad followed on the heels of Petersburg by Andrei Bely, which is also set in Russia around the period 1905 when throwing bombs at politicians was a popular way of expressing discontent with the Tsarist rule. The cover made it stand out as a related read with a picture of a man fleeing the bronze horseman.

Plot summary
A diligent student, Razumov, is interrupted one night by a fellow student Victor Haladin who explains that he has assassinated a politician and needs someone trustworthy to help him escape. He has clearly misunderstood Razumov’s sympathies and instead the student reports the assassin to the police via his mentor Prince P. Haladin is captured and executed but as a result of the his brush with the revolutionaries Razumov is considered to be one of them and becomes a secret agent sent to Geneva to unearth the activities of the exile Russian community. But Haladin’s mother and sister live in Geneva and Razumov finds that in the end the only option left to him is to confess both to the Haladin’s and the revolutionists his role and as a reward he has both ear drums burst and without the aid of hearing walks into a tram and is left as a virtual cripple with just a few days left to suffer.

Is it well written?
Having read Heart of Darkness, The Shadow-Line and now Under Western Eyes there is a device that Conrad uses - allowing a narrator to tell his or someone else’s story – so this is based largely on a document that Razumov is meant to have written. As a result you get to be inside the Russian’s head while the Westerner (narrator) struggles to understand what it all means and fails to grasp what constitutes the motives for Russian behaviour most of the time. But of course none of those sentiments would be possible if the writing was not able to express them. The one note of criticism here is that perhaps this story does not lend itself to the Conrad style, which slowly evolves to a crescendo when the truth become apparent. The problem here is that there is nor clear cut right and wrong making it harder for a reader to judge Razumov’s actions.

Should it be read?
It is not going to be top of the list unless you happen to like Conrad and books about Russia, particularly ones covering the early days of the revolutionary movement. As a love story it has a bitter ending for Miss Haladin and as a story of courage the man who speaks the truth (both Haladin and Razumov) both end up getting executed in different ways. But it does deserve to be read alongside other works, like Petersburg, and reminds you in a way that perhaps a native Russian writer might not have done so much, that large amounts of activity in the run-up to the 1917 revolution happened outside Russia in places like Geneva.

Summary
In this tale of revolutionists and those trying to stop them there are no real victors only innocent victims torn apart by events and of those possibly the most obvious to begin with is Razumov.

Version read – Penguin Twentieth Century Classics paperback

Under Western Eyes - post V

Although Conrad is not strictly a Russian writer, because he took British nationality although was born in the Ukraine, he manages to get the hang of a tragic ending although he ties things up in a way that maybe a Russian literary star would have avoided, preferring to end it with Razumov stumbling into a tram car. Still that has been the idea of the book that it is a Westerners interpretation of Russians.

Bullet points between pages 212 - 268

* The true situation of Razumov becomes clear with him being a double agent working for the police back in Russia collecting information on the revolutionists and sending it back for the authorities

* He finally appears at the Haladin’s after the daughter had gone out to fetch him because the mother suspected she was keeping a secret life from her but things don’t go quite according to plan and Razumov confesses to her he betrayed her brother

* Following the confession Razumov finishes the document that the narrator uses as the basis for the story and then heads to tell the revolutionists the truth and is rewarded by having his eardrums burst and ends up being hit by a tram

* The maid working at the revolutionary headquarters in Geneva who had promised to look after him in the event of trouble steps forward and makes sure that he is taken to hospital and finally goes back to Russia with him but Razumov is left a cripple without much time left to live

* Haladin’s mother dies and the daughter heads back to Russia handing the Razumov document to the English narrator who bids farewell to the daughter who heads back and dedicates herself to helping those unfortunates in prison and hospitals

* The narrator is left behind in Geneva and stumbles across one of the revolutionists years later who tells him what has become of everyone and provides a powerful reminder that revolutions are an obsession of the young and the old often have the wisdom to see the bigger picture

Review will be posted over the weekend…

Under Western Eyes - post IV

Part of the key to Razumov’s behaviour is not just his dilemma about being immersed in a revolutionary circle he can’t stand but also his fear that at any moment he is going to be discovered for the liar that he has been and far from being a friend to Haladin he is not far off being his executioner. But something happens that gives him the confidence to think that he is safe. But just at that point the story goes back to the interrogation with the investigating police officer and you sense that he is not going to be as safe as he thinks he is.

Bullet points between pages 169 – 212

* Razumov meets an old revolutionary contact he came across in Zurich and at first is as sneering and boorish as he has been with everybody else but he is scared that she might see through him

* But he is relieved when she reveals that a contact in Russia has discovered that the man who was meant to help Haladin escaper, who Razumov met and beat because he was drunk, hanged himself after feeling remorse for letting his comrade down

* Nobody knows the identity of the man who beat the horse man and the victim himself said he believed it was the devil who gave him a beating which amuses Razumov who believes he killed himself over a failed love affair not over remorse for Haladin

* The story then switches back to the interrogation when Razumov had been asked where he was going to go and the interrogating officer tells him that he will return to the police and tell them everything at some point in the future of his own free will

In the last fifty pages will that prediction come true? Find out tomorrow…

Under Western Eyes - post III

Once chance encounter with Haladin, who has identified Razumov as being a like-minded friend, leads to his life being ruined and identification with the revolutionary movement that leads to him traveling to Stuttgart and getting a mission that takes him to Geneva.

Bullet points between pages 114 - 168

* There are two important meetings in the space of a few pages with Haldin’s sister meeting Razumov with both showing signs of emotion barely able to share a word with her mistaking it for the deep emotion of a friend

* Then Razumov meets the narrator and is so rude to him that it becomes clear he is angry with the consequences of his association with Haladin and ends up describing the involvement with it all as a curse

* He then disappears from view for a while but after keeping away for a long time goes to visit the revolutionary leader Peter Ivanovitch at the house of the feminist millionaire who is supporting him

* Razumov sits there and listens to her moaning on about the Tsar and the dukes who have fleeced her of her money and then makes a play of being a dedicated revolutionary to Ivanovitch and urges him to stop prevaricating and inspire some action

* Ivanovitch urges him to bring Haladin’s sister to the house but as Razumov leaves the maid warns him against bringing her and tells him that she trusts him and will follow him anywhere and help him with his mission

Quite what will become of Razumov who believes that the revolutionary activity is immoral is not quite clear and will he finally settle accounts with the Haladin family? Maybe some answers will come tomorrow…

Conrad on the differences between us and them

The key to Under Western Eyes is that the narrator is not Russian yet involved with the major characters in such a way he is intimate with the full details of the story but still about to be detached. Conrad was clearly trying to make non-Russian readers understand what it is that motivates the characters he chose to write about and as a result apart from using the actions of the characters to fulfil that objective you also get passages where he guides the reader through the differences more overtly.

"That propensity of lifting every problem from the plane of the understandable by means of some sort of mystic expression is very Russian…I suppose one must be a Russian to understand Russian simplicity, a terrible corroding simplicity in which mystic phrases clothe a naïve and hopeless cynicism. I think sometimes that the psychological secret of the profound difference of that people consists in this, that they detest life, the irremediable life of the earth as it is, whereas we Westerners cherish it with perhaps equal exaggeration of its sentimental value..” pg 76

One of my colleagues asked me to stop reading Russian literature yesterday because it “is depressing” and might have a negative impact on me at work. Conrad would have loved that I think because it would have confirmed that western eyes do indeed look at things differently and where some see doom others see inspiration.

Under Western Eyes - post II

As the story develops you are faced with the interesting situation where the narrator, who has up to now been using Razumov’s diary as the source material adding other comments about Russian characteristics to the narration, becomes part of the story. Although they have not yet met you can start to imagine the twists that will take place to enable them to do so.

Bullet points between pages 51 – 114

* Having shopped his fellow student, who is executed after failing to provide the police with any information, Razumov becomes associated with Haladin by default and others in the revolutionary circle presume he is one of them

* He is dragged in front of the police after having his rooms searched and accuses his interrogator of treating him as a suspect but then walks out with the question of where he will go left hanging in the air

* Then the action moves to Geneva where the narrator, who is a language teacher, has been employed to help Haladin’s sister learn English and so he comes across the Haladin sister and mother who expect great things of their brother and son

* The narrator discovers in an English paper the fact that Haladin has been executed for the politicians murder and shares it with the family, which in a way makes them more attractive to one section of the émigré Russian community

* Peter Ivanovitch, a celebrated revolutionary Russian feminist, tells Miss Haladin that Razumov is in Geneva and because he was a friend of her brother’s she sets out to meet him to find out more about the circumstances surrounding her brother’s arrest and execution

More tomorrow…

Under Western Eyes - post I

Against a backdrop of anti-Tsarist feeling the hero of the book wants to rise up the ranks and overcome his problems. The way Conrad approaches this is that, as he warns in the introduction, is to try and see how Russians are perceived under Western eyes and as a result he is prepared to sacrifice some death of characterisation in order to get over the general Russian philosophy. Time will tell if he succeeds.

Bullet points between pages 1 – 50

* The focus of attention is a student Razumov who is diligent and hopes that he can out his low birth behind him by doing well and appeasing his benefactor a Prince he has only ever met once briefly

* Meanwhile an assassination is carried out of a Tsarist minister who has been responsible for repressing, exiling and punishing those who fight against the system as two students throw bombs at him with the first failing to kill him but the second hitting its mark

* The second bomb has been thrown by Victor Haladin who is a fellow student and seeks refuge in Razumov’s rooms and explains that it is a war and that’s why he did it but also expresses some regret and shows mental and emotional exhaustion at having carried out the act

* Haladin asks Razumov to help him escape but instead he goes to his benefactor the Prince who takes him to a general who says they will capture Haladin and then sends Razumov back to his rooms

* The clock stops, the minutes seem to go slowly but finally Haladin, who realises that his fellow student does not agree with his act, leaves and disappears into the night without Razumov having the courage to do anything but stay inside his rooms

More tomorrow…

Choosing the book by the cover

This book, Under Western Eyes, leapt put at me in the library because of the cover illustration. It could not be closer to echoing the themes of Petersburg by Andrei Bely. Having read a fair few short books by Joseph Conrad the author as well as the subject was attractive. The first post on the contents, with a chance to see if they match up to the ideas the cover inspires, will come tonight.

book of books: The Shadow-Line

This is only the second Joseph Conrad book I have read, the other being The Heart of Darkness, but they both have several things in common, most notably boats and a sense that what happens on the water cannot always be explained naturally.

Plot summary
The story starts with a seaman giving up his position on a steamer because he is bored and wants to go home but he then gets offered the chance of his own captaincy and jumps at the chance. But the boat seems to be under the curse of the previous captain who went mad and tried to send the crew on a suicidal journey until the first mater Burns stood up and questioned the captain who died shortly afterwards. Stranded in calm seas with the crew becoming ill Burns is convinced that the old captain is against them until he comes on deck from his own sick bed and laughs in the face of the storm he believes has been sent to destroy them. The winds pick up and the boat limps into Singapore and then with a fresh crew the narrator and captain heads out to sea again.

Is it well written?
This short story is prefaced by a long introduction and an author’s note that tries hard to make it clear to the reader that it is not a supernatural tale. What it does seem to be about is the First World War and the bravery and camaraderie of men facing perhaps certain death and although it is not that clear if you have read the introduction that message does come across.

Should it be read?
As a metaphor for the First World War and the bravery of the men then it provides quite a good idea of how those facing death can behave. But to my mind the old captain plays a role here and his curse and the idea of his body being buried being a point at which the boat cannot get across could easily represent the difficulties the troops had in the First World War had getting past just a few yards in trench warfare and who is the mad old captain – any number of war time leaders fit the frame but presumably the Kaiser is the intended target? Not sure but the fact you go away thinking about not just the war but the sea and its strange ways means this short volume is worth reading.

Leads to
More Conrad including the Heart of Darkness if you haven’t read that and on my shelf waiting to be gone through is The Secret Agent by him as well. It also reminds me a bit of Moby Dick so the classic by Herman Melville might be a good next stop.

Version read – Penguin Twentieth century classic paperback

Lunchtime read: The Shadow-Line post V

this short but odd tale of the sea ends and leaves you wondering if everything that Conrad writes has this edge of the supernatural to it. It also reminds you a liuttle bit of the Rhyme of the Ancient mariner and Moby Dick in terms of the battle a sailor has not only with the elements but with their own mind

Highlights from chapters five and six

Five
* The boat still sits in the ocean without a breeze and with the medicine gone the men resign themselves to illness and the captain is moved by their dedication and attitude - the only tangible moment when you think of the troops in the trenches

* Burn's is still convinced that the fate of the ship is being determined by the old caprain and black clouds surround the ship with the lifeless men doing what they can to prepare the sails and deck for a storm

Six
* As the darkness descends Burns comes up on deck and laughs at the curse and tells the captain it has to be dealt with head-on and it seems to do the trick and thre winds pick up and they manage to get into Singapore

* The whole crew except for the captain, Burns and Ransome, who has been the only other member of crew not to fall prey to the sickness, are taken off the ship into hospitals and then the captain gets ready with a shipwrecked crew to carry on

it does make you think of the First World War not just because of the bravery the men show against almost impossible odds but also as Giles says to the captain in port there is never any rest they just have to keep going (fighting) on.

Review will probably come shortly after Christmas Day...

Lunchtime read: The Shadow-Line post IV

The story starts to get interesting as the ship and the crew pit their mental strength against an unforseen enemy - the weather and the curse of the former captain.

Highlights from chapter Four
* The boat is hardly moving at all and the men are getting exhausted trying to get the boat to move faster and one by one they go down ill but the captain is relieved because he has six bottles of quinine to fight the fever

* Burns, the first mate continues to improve but is obsessed with the idea that it is the old captain that is holding up the ship and his theories start to get to the captain when freak winds push the sjip back, the spare bottles of quinine turn to dust and the crew starts to go down with illness

Can they escape from the calm sea? More tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: The Shadow-Line post III

Lunchtime came and went and the afternoon was spent with my sons watching Flushed Away, which was a great film, so here is the delayed thoughts on what was meant to be a short story choice for this week.

The minute that Conrad used his own author’s notes to challenge the idea that the book was a supernatural story you knew that you were in for some content that would cause some people to think that way and the evidence for it starts coming in chapter three.

Highlights from chapter three
* Now installed as captain the first task is to get briefed on the boat and find out what happened about the former captain from the first mate a man called Burns who seems to have taken an instant dislike to the new captain

* Burn tells the story of how the captain, a 65 year old violin player, went slowly mad and was in the process of taking the ship and crew on an impossible voyage to Hong Kong before Burns confronted him and made him see sense although the captain cursed him and the ship

* As they wait in port one by one the crew start to fall ill until Burn’s himself is taken off the ship and taken to a hospital where he begs for the boat not to sail without him and he is returned aboard and the boat limps out to sea waiting for a breeze to come

More tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: The Shadow-Line post II

This can hardly be called a lunchtime post but anyway until I get back to posting at the right time here here are the highlights from chapter two

Chapter two
* Having been given a command of the boat the narrator heads back to the seaman's hostel and discovers that the steward had been trying to shoehorn his troublesome guest Hamilton into the job to get rid of him

* Captain Giles, who seems to know all about the intrigue, is pleased for him in a subdued way and walks with him to the boat carrying him to the port to meet up with his boat and because he is three hours late the captain of the steamer is hostile towards him for the entire trip

* He trembles when he first sees the boat he will command and boards her with a mixture of pride and trepidation and starts to look arund her and hears a humming from below which stops as soon as he starts to descend the stairs

More hopefully close to a recognisable lunchtime tomorrow...