About This Ebook

The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, published in 1907, is one of Joseph Conrad’s most intriguing works that delves into the dark underbelly of late 19th-century London. The story revolves around Mr. Verloc, a secret agent who leads a double life as an anarchist sympathizer while posing as a respectable shop owner with his wife and her family living above the store. When Verloc becomes involved in a scheme to bomb the Greenwich Observatory orchestrated by a foreign embassy’s emissary, he sets off a chain reaction of events leading to betrayal, tragedy, and moral ambiguity. Through its complex characters and layered narrative structure, “The Secret Agent” explores issues such as anarchism, state surveillance, human fragility, and the destructive power of ideology within both personal relationships and broader societal contexts.