“It is a masterly study, the raw material of which would have been turned into crude melodrama by some writers. Mr. Conrad has made it the vehicle for some of the most telling characterization he has accomplished.”
| + | Ath. 1907, 2: 361. S. 28. 630w. |
“We approach Mr. Conrad’s ‘The secret agent’ with anticipations that are not fulfilled.” Wm. M. Payne.
| − + | Dial. 43: 252. O. 16, ’07. 200w. |
“We do not consider ‘The secret agent’ Mr. Conrad’s masterpiece; it lacks the free movement of ‘Youth’ and the terrible minuteness of ‘Lord Jim,’ while it offers no scope for the employment of the tender and warm fancy that made ‘Karain’ so memorable; but it is, we think, an advance upon ‘Nostromo,’ its immediate predecessor.”
| + | Lond. Times. 6: 285. S. 20, ’07. 440w. |
“The characters stand forth clearly enough, but you cannot get interested in them till you have gone through the first half of the volume. This is too heavy a draft on the faith of the reader.”
| − + | Nation. 85: 285. S. 26, ’07. 250w. |
“There is, nevertheless, a vast gulf fixed between Mr. Conrad and the melodramatist, between the human tragedy of ‘The secret agent’ and the detective story of commerce.”
| + | N. Y. Times. 12: 562. S. 21, ’07. 1230w. | |
| N. Y. Times. 12: 655. O. 19, ’07. 20w. |