Conrad, Joseph | A bomb plot in London

Property from the Workman Collection

Conrad, Joseph

The Secret Agent. A Simple Tale. London: Methuen & Co., 1907

8vo. Half-title, 40pp. publisher's catalog dated September 1907 at end; slight foxing to preliminary leaves. Original dark red cloth, spine lettered in gilt; very slight rubbing to extremities. Housed in a custom burgundy morocco clamshell case.

First edition. One of the author's masterpieces and the first modern novel of counter-espionage. F.R. Levis would later describe the book as "indubitably a classic and a masterpiece,” noting that the final scene between Adolf and Winnie Verloc was "one of the most astonishing triumphs of genius in fiction.”

PROVENANCE:

J. Mason Hargreave (ownership signature to front free endpaper)