"the secret agent"
Joseph Conrad
My primary source was a collection of letters from people shortly after the Greenwich Park bombing. Upon reading these letters I learned that much of the framework for the story was in fact true. Martial Bourdin, the man who blew himself up, was seen with a man not long before the bombing took place. Here it is debated what went wrong, some believed he was supposed to bring the bomb to another anarchist, however the letters it is stated that Bourdin was supposed to go test the bomb in a nearby Epping Forest. It was also noted in the letters that Bourdin wasn’t the smartest of fellows and in fact he sounds a lot like the Stevie. It also just so happens that Bourdin’s brother in law, H. B. Samuels, was a publisher of an anarchist paper called the Commonweal and was seen with Bourdin shortly before the bombing. It’s said that Bourdin was very obedient and looked up to Samuels. At this time another anarchist David Nicoll, was supposedly jealous of Samuels’s position at the paper and used the incident with his brother in law to make Samuels look bad. The Secret Agent seems to take the facts of the bombing and fills in the blank with fiction. But the book itself actually quite accurate. This primary source helped me learn that the book wasn’t just written about a bombing. The research had to have been done to figure out more of the story. The letters describe people that sound like characters right out of the book. Such as a man known for distributing explosives to some comrades, a man that sounds a hell of a lot like the professor. There’s even specific account of seeing Samuels (Mr. Verloc in the book) and Bourdin (Stevie in the book) seen together shortly before the incident. Much like Stevie, the way that Bourdin was described in the letters makes him sound like more of a victim than a criminal. After the incident, Samuels resigns from his position of publisher for the Commonweal and his replacement brings up the relationship between Bourdin and Samuels, stating that the men were known for being together a lot and that Samuels was a good friend of his, and that if they were so close and even seen together shortly before the incident then why was he not arrested for being a part of it? I think because he was in a sort of relationship with the police as a sort of informant. With how accurate the book has been so far I wouldn’t doubt that Samuels had a setup much like Mr. Verloc’s. Although these letters are very informative and cast a different view on the book, the fact that the root of the reason for Nicoll’s hate for Samuels was political makes me wonder about how truthful he was with his accounts against Samuels. If Samuels was so plainly guilty, or directly affiliated with the bombing, then I do not believe that he would’ve been let off the hook easily, even if he was working with the police
Citation:
Nicoll, David. The Greenwich Mystery: Letters from the Dead. (6, Windmill St., W.): David Nicoll, 1898. Print.
Nicoll, David. The Greenwich Mystery: Letters from the Dead. (6, Windmill St., W.): David Nicoll, 1898. Print.