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Yes, I would also wonder whether this person has read the book - there are no 'gangsters', they are anarchists, which is a huge difference. Anyway, I don't mean to attack the previous reviewer - he simply seems to have mixed up his facts. Indeed, this site itself seems to have done the same - the attack was in 1886, not 1894. This can be proven by the fact that Conrad writes that Mr and Mrs Verloc have been married for seven years, and he then reveals that the date of the wedding was 14 June 1879 in the final chapter of the novel. It is also rather misleading to dub Verloc a Russian spy - he is not Russian in the slightest. However, he comes to be in the employ of the Russian ambassador, Mr Vladimir. <br> I've just come back from my seminar on 'The Secret Agent', which unfortunately due to a poor tutor wasn't particularly intriguing. The book itself, on the other hand, I found very interesting. I was expecting a rather dull, impenetrable text because the only other book by Conrad I had previously read was 'Heart of Darkness', which though it may have considerable critical usefulness, especially for Postcolonial studies, is an overwritten book. What I mean by that is that Conrad's style, as he wasn't writing in his first language, is dense to the point of verbosity. The traces of this density are still present in 'The Secret Agent', but in this case the style is successful, as rather than overloading his prose, Conrad adopts an ironical stance, tinging even the more gruesome sections of the novel with a degree of comedy. <br> In the course of the book, Conrad investigates various urban tropes, such as the crowd, and the city itself as an entity. One of the more interesting characters in the texts in the unfortunate Stevie, who due to some mental disability which is not fully explained has a very innocent view of the world. He is unable to filter out the excessive stimuli of the city, which leaves him often incapable of doing anything but standing open-mouthed, gazing in wonder. The intriguing result of this innocence is that Stevie is the only humanitarian character in the book - he cannot stand suffering of any kind, be it horses getting whipped on a hansom cab, or even mere discussion of unsavoury events. He is cared for by his sister, with a fierce, quasi-maternal protectiveness, and this desire to protect him has led her to marry Mr Verloc, whom she believes to be a dependable source of income and therefore security for her family. In addition, her mother lives upstairs, and together they try to care for Stevie. <br> However, this is complicated by Mr Verloc's career, which is essentially as an undercover secret agent in the anarchist groups in London. The book is set in 1886, when anarchist attacks were a real concern - as Conrad writes in his author's note to the book, he bases 'The Secret Agent' on real events, related to him by an acquaintance. When conrad actually wrote the book, at the beginning of the 20th century, anarchism was no longer a major concern for Londoners. It had been replaced by the growing Woman's Movement of the Suffragettes - in this context, the character of Winnie Verloc becomes more engaging, as will be seen towards the end of the novel. I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't read the book yet, but suffice to say, Winnie does something rather drastic.<br> The interaction between domestic and public is another interesting aspect of the book. This can be seen in the character of the Assistant Commissioner, for example. His reasons for investigating the explosion at Greenwich are motivated by his wife, rather than any professional concerns. <br> Anyway, that's enough from me. I would recommend the book, and if you're about to study it, don't be put off by 'Heart of Darkness' - besides all the intellectual points that can be made about 'The Secret Agent', it is, at heart, an exhiliarating detective story, if unconventional - there are a multitude of 'detectives' at work in the book, arriving at various conclusions. I may even be tempted to read more Conrad!<br>