Like his contemporary, Henry James, Conrad wrote prefaces to his works of fiction in which he exposited on his principles of art. In this section, we will consider his famous preface to his novel The Nigger of the Narcissus and his Author's Note to The Secret Agent.
In the former, Conrad presents his basic definition of art, which draws heavily upon a realist commitment to life as it exists, while also being motivated by a deep moral, perhaps spiritual conviction in truth, characteristic of Russian literature: "art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colors, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential--their one illuminating and convincing quality--the very truth of their existence" (The Portable Conrad, 705). Rather than high narratives abstracted from particular experiences, Conrad focuses on the neglected individuals, who, for him, are the most individualizes and thus representative of an alienating modern society. He focuses on them with a sincerity that comprises his central moral commitment as a novelist and artist.
If individual focus on character is Conrad's essential aim, his means is vivid sensory description, by which he makes his otherwise unreal and fictional characters life-like and therefore morally compelling to readers: "My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see" (708).
More specifically to The Secret Agent, Conrad remarks in his Author's Note on his heavy use of irony in the depiction of the characters and their environment, saying that "ironic treatment alone would enable me to say all I felt I would have to say in scorn as well as in pity" (The Secret Agent, 232). Like his use of visual description, irony allows Conrad to present with greater force the views he wants his readers to take up with his characters. Irony allows him a certain flexibility in presenting views of different polarities but all of the same high intensity while not making the novel monotonous or overtly didactic.
