Under Western Eyes

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**Under Western Eyes**
Author	Joseph Conrad
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher
Released	1911
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	none
Followed by	none

Under Western Eyes (1911) is a novel by Joseph Conrad. The novel takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia and Geneva, Switzerland and is indebted to Crime and Punishment as a study of guilt. This novel is considered to be one of Conrad's major works and is close in subject matter to The Secret Agent.

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The protagonist is a young Russian student named Razumov, a studious and career-motivated young man. One day, when he returns home, he finds a fellow student named Victor Haldin hiding in his apartment. Apparently Haldin is an anarchist terrorist who has just committed a political assassination and evaded the police to seek refuge with Razumov.

Asking for Razumov's help, Haldin sends Razumov to contact someone named Ziemanitch, who may be able to help Haldin escape successfully. Razumov is panic-stricken, but he shows no sign of fear to Haldin, and very reluctantly agrees to undertake the mission. Eventually Razumov finds Ziemanitch in a totally drunken state and, in a momentary fury, beats up the drunk. Then, in a fever, Razumov proceeds to go to the local authorities and sell Haldin out. Haldin is consequently captured and executed.

The narrative then shifts to Geneva where Nathalie Haldin, the sister of the executed revolutionary, receives the tragic news. In his last correspondence to his sister, Victor mentioned a certain serious young man named Razumov who was kind to him. Nathalie soon learns that Razumov is scheduled to arrive in Switzerland, and she impatiently awaits the arrival of her late brother's final friend.