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This article examines Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent through the frameworks of the event and hospitality, drawing primarily on the theories of Jacques Derrida. Inspired by the real-life event known as the Greenwich Outrage, the novel extensively explores the buildup to the bombing and its far-reaching consequences through inventive narrative strategies. In its composition and reception, The Secret Agent exemplifies Derek Attridge’s concept of a literary work as an “event,” with both the acts of writing and of reading the novel constituting the event. In the process, Conrad juxtaposes Stevie, who serves as the novel’s ethical compass, with the British establishment. Stevie’s profound sense of sympathy is connected with the notion of unconditional hospitality, prompting him to react strongly against the injustice and inhospitality of the world, thereby catalyzing the events. His death underscores the impossibility of unconditional hospitality. Conversely, the British social elites practice a form of conditional hospitality. They remain merely tolerant toward social others; their tolerance aims to maintain social order and reinforce their dominance. Through such contrast, Conrad encourages readers to critically reflect on hospitality and the broader social issues at stake.