Search results
Aug 5, 2016 · The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in an early 20th-century postcard. Note the closed gates. Photograph: Wikipedia. Conrad was convinced the Observatory was the target, although the novel suggests ...
- Rebekah Higgitt
- A Sharp and Clear Detonation
- The Enigmatic Martial Bourdin
- But Why?
In Greenwich, on the afternoon of 15 February 1894, two members of the Observatory staff were still in the building at 16.45. This they described as working 'late' – all the other staff had left by that time. Mr Thackeray and Mr Hollis were both in the Lower Computing Room when they were startled by a 'sharp and clear detonation, followed by a nois...
Police investigators soon learned that his name was Martial Bourdin. That afternoon the 26-year old Frenchman left his room in Fitzroy Street and took a tram from Westminster that took him all the way to Greenwich. On leaving the tram he was observed to be carrying a parcel as he made his way to Greenwich Park. What happened a few minutes later, no...
A mystery remains – why did Bourdin pick such an unlikely target as the Observatory? The small bomb was unlikely to cause any serious damage there and it was a very different target from the crowded opera houses and cafes favoured by the terrorists in France. Some believe that Bourdin was duped into carrying the bomb or that he was on the way to Fr...
People also ask
Who was the secret agent in the Greenwich mystery?
Did 'the secret agent' have a terrorist bombing in Greenwich?
Was the bombing in Greenwich Park inspired by real events?
Was Greenwich Observatory bombed?
The Secret Agent at Wikisource. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907. [1] The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy for an unnamed country (presumably Russia). The Secret Agent is one of Conrad's later political novels in which he moved away from his ...
- Joseph Conrad
- 442
- 1907
- September 1907
The Secret Agent was Joseph Conrad’s delayed response to the real-life 1894 Greenwich Mystery — the accidental death of 26-year-old Martial Bourdin, who was fatally injured while carrying a bomb across Greenwich Park. Conrad had in fact forgotten all about this once notorious incident, until his friend, the author Ford Madox Ford, brought ...
The Secret Agent is a novel by British-Polish writer Joseph Conrad, first published in 1907. Set in London in 1886, it charts the adventures of the secret agent Adolf Verloc and the work he does on behalf of a powerful but unnamed country, more than likely Russia. The book is an espionage tale, a family drama, and a comic satire that pits ...
Royal Observatory, Greenwich c. 1902 as depicted on a postcard. Martial Bourdin (1868 – 15 February 1894) was a French anarchist, who died on 15 February 1894 when chemical explosives that he was carrying prematurely detonated outside the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park, London. [1]
The novel imagines an anarchist plot to blow up Greenwich Observatory, where standard time was measured, as a symbol of a more general attack on publicly shared standards. In Conrad’s novel, time itself is out of joint; after relating the explosion, the narrative flashes back without warning to an earlier timeframe, leaving the reader ...
