The Secret Agent | Literary Precedents
One of the major influences on Conrad's political fiction has generally been considered to be Dostoevsky's novels, especially The Possessed (also published as The Devils, 1 872; see separate entry) with its satirical treatment of Russian radicals. Whereas Dostoevsky, however, tended to view anarchists and revolutionaries as virtually demonic in their nature and behavior, this Conrad novel treats them as less dangerous and somewhat more ineffectual and self-destructive than Dostoevsky's radicals. Martin Seymour- Smith also concludes in his 1984 "Introduction" to the Penguin...
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