Conrad, Joseph

8vo, first edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author to the collector George Keating ("for G.T. Keating [erased] | Joseph Conrad | 1919. [erased]") on half-title, 40pp. publisher's catalogue dated September 1907 at end, original dark red vertically ribbed cloth lettered and with design in gilt on spine, collector's green cloth folding box, inscription partially erased, dedication leaf loose but present, some tears, binding worn

G.T. Keating, authorial inscription

Cagle A12a(1)

A rare presentation copy of Conrad's great political novel, set in London in 1896 and centring on the character of the anarchist Verloc, who is charged by his superiors with the task of destroying Greenwich with a bomb. The Secret Agent is the first modern novel of counter-espionage, and is now regarded as one of Conrad's greatest masterpieces. It is also his only novel entirely set in London. "A profoundly ironic study of the ways in which domestic relations and political ideologies reflect and corrupt each other..." (Knowles and Moore, p.368)

George Thomas Keating (1892-1976) assembled one of the finest Conrad collections (now at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). The present copy reveals an attempt to remove Keating's name and the date (but both are fully legible). Keating's catalogue, A Conrad Memorial Library, reveals that the copies present in his collection comprise Jessie Conrad's inscribed copy and one including a note by Conrad and Hugh Walpole (presumably Walpole's copy).