The Secret Agent

Mr Verloc, the secret agent, keeps a shop in London's Soho where he lives with his wife Winnie, her infirm mother, and her idiot brother, Stevie. Verloc is part of a group of anarchists who believe in overthrowing the government and who also function as somewhat ineffective terrorists. The group mainly produces anarchist pamphlets called 'F.P.' (The Future of the Proletariat) and hold private meetings among themselves. The agent is secretly employed by a foreign embassy, probably Russia, to blow up the Greenwich Observatory. "The Secret Agent" is a a story set earlier (1886) telling an allegory of terrorists and anarchists based in Edwardian England. The complicated plot is masterful, the prose sophisticated, and the characterizations full and engrossing. The death of an innocent is heartrending. Joseph Conrad is often considered the best writer of the 19th century.