The Secret Agent : A Simple Tale

In the only novel Conrad set in London, "The Secret Agent" communicates a profoundly ironic view of human affairs.

The story is woven around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894 masterminded by Verloc, a Russian spy working for the police, and ostensibly a member of an anarchist group in Soho.

His masters instruct him to discredit the anarchists in a humiliating fashion, and when his evil plan goes horribly awry, Verlac must deal with the repercussions of his actions.