‎'‎An impenetrable mystery seems destined to hang for ever over this act of madness or despair‎.‎‎'‎ 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.‎ When Verloc is reluctantly involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory things go disastrously wrong‎,‎ and what appears to be ‎'‎A Simple Tale‎'‎ proves to involve politicians‎,‎ policemen‎,‎ foreign diplomats and London‎'‎s fashionable society in the darkest and most surprising interrelations‎.‎ Based on the text which Conrad‎'‎s first English readers enjoyed‎,‎ this new edition includes a critical introduction which describes Conrad‎'‎s great London novel as the realization of a ‎'‎monstrous town‎'‎‎,‎ a place of idiocy‎,‎ madness‎,‎ criminality‎,‎ and butchery‎.‎ ABOUT THE SERIES‎:‎ For over 100 years Oxford World‎'‎s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe‎.‎ Each affordable volume reflects Oxford‎'‎s commitment to scholarship‎,‎ providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features‎,‎ including expert introductions by leading authorities‎,‎ helpful notes to clarify the text‎,‎ up‎-to‎-date bibliographies for further study‎,‎ and much more‎.‎