Now all our great cities are hot-beds of Socialism and - and
anarchism. The whole country seems banded together against the aristocracy and the landowners.
As far back as 1906 A.D., Lord Avebury, an Englishman, uttered the following in the House of Lords: "The unrest in Europe, the spread of socialism, and the ominous rise of
Anarchism, are warnings to the governments and the ruling classes that the condition of the working classes in Europe is becoming intolerable, and that if a revolution is to be avoided some steps must be taken to increase wages, reduce the hours of labor, and lower the prices of the necessaries of life." The Wall Street Journal, a stock gamesters' publication, in commenting upon Lord Avebury's speech, said: "These words were spoken by an aristocrat and a member of the most conservative body in all Europe.
All this is used up; it is no longer instructive as an object lesson in revolutionary
anarchism. Every newspaper has ready-made phrases to explain such manifestations away.
For the first time he heard of socialism,
anarchism, and single tax, and learned that there were warring social philosophies.
Of intellectual and moral things, on the other hand, there was no limit, and one could have more without another's having less; hence "Communism in material production,
anarchism in intellectual," was the formula of modern proletarian thought.
The importance of these London years for international
anarchism and syndicalism is another common, and important, theme.
Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940: The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution (reprint, 2010)
They therefore form a "coherent trilogy" for tracking the naturalists "evolving views" (21) on
anarchism. The conceptual premises of Explosive Narratives are that "the discourse on terror functions symbolically within a given social structure" (11)--in this case, Third Republic France; that naturalism's inclinations are "entropie," a framework opened up by David Baguley's work on that particular "vision" of naturalism; and that anarchy, by definition an unwilling participant in realist representation, challenges naturalist aesthetics.
Two Cheers for
Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play
Agathocleous's concise introduction to The Secret Agent situates the novel in terms of its publication history, its relation to Conrad's interests and oeuvre, its critique of Victorian mores and genres, contemporary concerns about
anarchism and violence, its connection to literary naturalism and the themes of degeneration and heat death, and its afterlife in contemporary culture.