The Secret Agent cover art

The Secret Agent

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Secret Agent

By: Joseph Conrad
Narrated by: Peter Joyce
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Inspired by an actual terrorist attack on Greenwich Laboratory in 1894 ‘The Secret Agent’ is arguably Conrad’s greatest work. Mr. Verloc, the spy, is roused to action by his masters. He is to instigate an act ‘of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be incomprehensible, inexplicable, almost unthinkable; in fact, mad’. All does not run smoothly however and leads to Mr Verloc’s wife, Winnie, demonstrating how quickly rational equilibrium can change to frenzied destruction. Setting his story in a subterranean grimy London peopled by deceptive, dishonourable characters, Conrad not only reminds us of the futility of mindless aggression but also of how near it is to the surface of human behaviour.

©2011 Assembled Stories (P)2008 Assembled Stories
Classics Espionage
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Secret Agent cover art
Victory cover art
Lord Jim cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
The Funny Thing About Death... cover art
Erotic Vagrancy cover art
SAI: Secret Agents of the IlluminaRti, Book 1 cover art
Slaughterhouse-Five cover art
Great Expectations cover art
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes cover art
For Whom the Bell Tolls cover art
Oliver Twist cover art
Cast in Shadow cover art
Billionaires' Row cover art
The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
You May Never See Us Again cover art

Critic reviews

About Assembled Stories: Over the years the national press have reviewed Assembled Stories titles as "excellent", "remarkable", "entrancing", "superb", "magic for sure", "masterly", "wonderful", "a class act" and "a splendid example of audio at its best".

"Peter Joyce is the most remarkable one-man band in audiobook publishing. Joyce, an experienced actor, reads them all himself." ( The Independent)

What listeners say about The Secret Agent

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Classic tale of the Anarchist era

The Secret Agent is less an espionage novel, and more a portrait of revolutionary anarchism.
The story can be difficult to follow at times as it can be rather heavy on dialogue at the expense of plot development, making the drama and action less clear, but a worthy read that provides a feel for the times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Classic literature - but a bit hard going

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not for me. It is very well narrated but just didn't capture my interest. I felt the story could have been told in half the pages.

If you’ve listened to books by Joseph Conrad before, how does this one compare?

N/A

Have you listened to any of Peter Joyce’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

Do you think The Secret Agent needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!