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THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad (1907)

Plot: Bowler-hatted and bone idle, Mr Verloc owns a Soho shop which sells overpriced pornographic material. He is married to Winnie and lives with her mother and brother, Stevie. Verloc spies for a nameless foreign power and informs for the police. His embassy boss wants him to destabilise British complacency by bombing the Greenwich Observatory, Verloc would prefer to be left in peace. But he procures a bomb and decides to use his mentally ill-equipped brother-in-law Stevie to carry the explosive. Stevie only wishes to please: as a result, he is blown into tiny peaces. Inspector Heat, called in to investigate, notices among Stevie's remains a label with Stevie's address. Verloc was unaware that Winnie had marked her brother's clothing in case he should become lost. Eventually, the Inspector calls. When Mrs Verloc realises that her husband has killed Stevie, she goes mad and murders her husband. Verloc failed to understand that his wife had only married him to provide security for Stevie. Winnie escapes and takes up with Ossipon, an oily anarchist. He pinches her money and deserts. Entirely isolated, Winnie throws herself from the cross-channel ferry.

Theme: Society is bereft of a sense of community; it is bound together by a subtle combination of idleness and convention. Individuals are isolated from each other and prefer to be ''secret agents''. Only Stevie has any intuition that other people suffer and have lives worthy of respect. Conrad shows political rhetoric to be a means of self-protection and self-inflation.

Style: The story issues from a tortuous series of flashbacks and is built from interviews and static verbal confrontations. The prose is artfully sardonic, threaded with intimations of grotesque farce.

Chief strengths: Conrad's analysis of urban terrorists and of those who uphold ''civilized'' values is equally devastating. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, he manages to be funny. The portrayal of London, "the cruel devourer of the world's light'', burying "five million lives'' ensures that The Secret Agent is spiritually one of the first 20th-century novels.

Chief weaknesses: The irony becomes, at times, an awkward exo-skeleton which inhibits even minor shifts of tone. As a result, the treatment of Stevie can appear mawkish.

What they thought of it then: Conrad hoped the book would bring him fame and money. In the short term, it did neither. There was some grudging respect, but critics tended to carp on about the sordid subject matter. Joe Public still saw Conrad as a purveyor of exotic sea-faring yarns.

What we think of it now: These days Conrad is blamed for his indecisiveness or his aestheticism or his alleged racism. The politically correct lobby feel uncomfortable when facing the blasts of his perfectly controlled disdain.

Responsible for: Graham Greene's seediness, Le Carre's narrative indirection and helping Martin Amis (and others) focus on the potential terrors of London life.