Classical Liberalism & Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent"

Abstract

Joseph Conrad's novels, as well as his other works, are suffused with politics. The heart of darkness-the pessimism-of Conrad is well known. Professor Spegele here presents another side: Conrad as liberal democrat (with a difference). For Conrad embraced liberal democracy almost in despair, since he viewed it as the last and only resort man has which can hold the darkness at bay. He was anything but blind to its defects, and this is what gives his work its startling feeling of contemporaneity.