The+Secret+Agent

Literapedia Book Notes for
=//The Secret Agent// by Joseph Conrad=

Characters

 * **Mr. Adolf Verloc** (ch 1)—the proprietor of an unsavory stationery shop, and a secret agent.
 * **Winnie Verloc** (ch 1)—Mr. Verloc’s much-younger wife.
 * **Stevie** (ch 1)—Winnie’s younger and mentally deficient brother.
 * **Winnie’s mother** (ch 1)—an older woman whose swollen legs hinder her mobility.
 * **Mr. Vladimir** (ch 2)—the First Secretary of the Embassy of an unnamed European country.
 * **Michaelis** (ch 3)—a member of Verloc’s Future of the Proletariat (F.P.) society; he is supported by a rich patroness.
 * **Karl Yundt** (ch 3)—the oldest member of the F.P.; he refers to himself as the terrorist.
 * **Alexander Ossipon** (ch 3)—a former medical student and the principal writer of the F.P pamphlets.
 * **The Professor** (ch 4)—a bomb-maker who is always ready to commit suicide.
 * **Chief Inspector Heat** (ch 5)—the police officer in charge of keeping track of the anarchists.
 * **The Assistant Commissioner** (ch 5)—Inspector Heat’s superior.
 * **Sir Ethelred** (ch 7)—the aged Secretary of State and a great Personage.
 * **Toodles** (ch 7)—Sir Ethelred’s secretary.

Chapter Summaries

 * 1) Verloc’s shop in his house in Soho, London is described. Verloc’s family is introduced, and his wooing of Winnie is briefly related.
 * 2) Verloc visits an unnamed Embassy, and it is revealed that he has been acting as an //agent provocateur// in London for some time. Vladimir charges him with provoking the English government to repressive measures by bombing the Greenwich Observatory.
 * 3) Verloc meets with Michaelis, Yundt, and Ossipon. Afterwards, Stevie is upset by what he hears, and Verloc is unable to fall asleep.
 * 4) A month passes. Ossipon meets the Professor in a tavern and tells him of the explosion at Greenwich Park. The Professor says that he had given a bomb to Verloc.
 * 5) On the way home, the Professor encounters Chief Inspector Heat, who had spent the morning investigating the bombing. Later, Heat confers with the Assistant Commissioner.
 * 6) Chief Inspector Heat and the Assistant Commissioner continue to discuss the case. The Assistant Commissioner asks about Michaelis, and Heat shares the clue he found.
 * 7) The Assistant Commissioner visits Sir Ethelred and then begins his own investigation.
 * 8) The time reverts to before the bombing. Winnie’s mother is taken to a charity home in a cab, accompanied by Winnie and Stevie. On the way home, Stevie contemplates poverty. At home, Verloc worries about his situation.
 * 9) Verloc returns from a ten-day trip to the Continent, and he convinces Winnie to allow Stevie to live with Michaelis in the country for a while. The afternoon of the bombing, Verloc is visited by the Assistant Commissioner and then by Inspector Heat. Winnie learns of her brother’s death.
 * 10) After talking with Verloc, the Assistant Commissioner first visits Sir Ethelred and then visits the patroness of Michaelis. At the home of the latter, he confronts Mr. Vladimir.
 * 11) Verloc attempts to explain Stevie’s death to Winnie, who eventually gets her revenge.
 * 12) Winnie stumbles upon Ossipon, and the two make plans to escape to France that are unrealized.
 * 13) Ossipon and the Professor discuss the recent events.

Book Note Creator
Hal Waller, instructor