“Verloc”: The Origins of the Text

Abstract

The Secret Agent was originally conceived as a short story, and the Collected Letters allows us to chart the emergence of the novel from the short piece originally called “Verloc,” and designed for A Set of Six, alongside “An Anarchist,” and “The Informer.” The development of the holograph manuscript (first draft) of the novel, which was published in serial form in the USA in Ridgway’s Militant Weekly, dramatically unfolds as Conrad struggles to complete the text, after serialization has already begun. Conrad’s narrative structure is discussed in the context of the novel emerging from the short story.