John le carre three complete novels

The author, born David Cornwell, wrote it at the peak of the Cold War, and he made the startling decision to portray the intelligence methods of both Western and Communist countries as vile and morally senseless. By this, his third book, he had found his great theme, betrayal, which he has dramatized with infinite variation ever since. The book reproduced the East—West conflict as a set of obscure, fascinating, and dubious strategies. Who gained from the complex role-playing? The double agents, the planted insinuations, and the endless treacheries? What was won?

Nearly three decades ago, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the U. The basic pitch is this: George Smiley is the anti—James Bond. Unlike Bond, he is fat and poorly dressed; unlike Bond, he toils away at a drab intelligence agency, abstrusely referred to as the Circus, permanently plagued by bureaucratic infighting and petty office politics. Unlike Bond, Smiley is married, and his wife dislikes him and cheats on him. Unlike Bond, Smiley regards the necessary violence and mendacity of espionage as a real moral problem, rather than a fun adolescent fantasy.