Joseph Conrad — The Secret Agent

London, Methuen & Co, 1907 . First edition. Cloth. The first edition of Joseph Conrad's celebrated and influential work of anarchist spy fiction, following a terrorist in Victorian era London. The first edition, first impression. The first issue, with "be be" on page 117, and with a forty page publisher's catalogue to the rear, dated September 1907. Wise (17).Widely regarded as one of Conrad's best novels, this work is set in Soho in 1886 and deals with anarchism, espionage and terrorism, following the character Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country.Patrick Reilly called it 'a terrorist text as well as a text about terrorism&apos. One of 2,500 copies of this first edition produced.With the circulating library label of Day's Library of London to the tail of the front board, but with no library markings internally.Because of its terrorism theme, it was one of the three works of literature most cited in the American media two weeks after the September 11 attacks, and is known to have been a favourite book of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. In the publisher's original cloth binding. A touch of fading to back strip, with bumping to back strip head and tail, and light rubbing to joints. Library label to front board tail. Hinges strained, and a touch tender. Internally, firmly bound. Pages lightly age toned to perimeters, with significant spotting to perimeters of first and last few leaves. No internal library markings. Good . Ill.: None. Good .