Meister Geschichtenerzähler: "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad
(Original Review, 2002-06-25)
One of my oldest friends, both female and a graduate in English loathes Lessing, and I could just as easily wonder how Nabokov can offer anything superior to Under Western Eyes, The Secret Agent, Nostromo or Victory, which must have one of the most memorable lines in English literature when the sinister Mr. Jones tells Heyst: "I am the world itself, come to pay you a visit." Nabokov was famous for his dismissive remarks of other writers, from Gogol to Pasternak, and said of Conrad: "I cannot abide Conrad’s souvenir-shop style, bottled ships and shell necklaces of romanticist clichés.
If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.
