The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad Paperback Book 9780141441580

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 Verloc must deal with the repercussions of his actions