Table Of ContentSECRET AGENTS IN FICTION
MACMILLAN STUDIES IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Clare Hanson
SHORT STORIES AND SHORT FICTIONS, 1880-1980
David Leon Higdon
SHADOWS OF THE PAST IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH
FICTION
Holger Klein with John Flower and Eric Hornberger (editors)
THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN FICTION
Harold Orel
THE LITERARY ACHIEVEMENT OF REBECCA WEST
Tony Pinkney
WOMEN IN THE POETRY OFT. S. ELIOT
Lars Ole Sauerberg
SECRET AGENTS IN FICTION
Patrick Swinden
THE ENGLISH NOVEL OF HISTORY AND SOCIETY,
1940-80
Eric Warner (editor)
VIRGINIA WOOLF: A CENTENARY PERSPECTIVE
Anne Wright
LITERATURE OF CRISIS, 1910-22
Further titles in preparation
SECRET AGENTS
IN FICTION
Ian Fleming, John le Carre and Len Deighton
Lars 0 le Sauerb erg
M
MACMILLAN
© Lars Ole Sauerberg 1984
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 978-0-333-36861-9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Sauerberg, Lars Ole
Secret agents in fiction.-(Macmillan studies in
twentieth-century literature)
1. English fiction-20th century-History and
criticism 2. Spy stories, English-History
and criticism
I. Title
823' .914'09358 PR830.S65
ISBN 978-1-349-17654-0 ISBN 978-1-349-17652-6 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-17652-6
Contents
Preface IX
Acknowledgements XII
Notes on Terminology XIV
Abbreviations and Dates of Publication XVI
SECRET-AGENT FICTION: A FORMULA GENRE
1 Contexts of History
The Genesis of the Genre 3
Towards Genre Consolidation: From Childers to
Cheyney, 1903-1945 7
Post-War Genre Consolidation: Ian Fleming,
John le Carre and Len Deighton 11
2 Contexts of Criticism
Thrillers and Literary Quality 15
The Concept of Formula Fiction 19
FORMULA AND VARIATION (I):
DICHOTOMY STRUCTURE AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
3 The Hero at Home and Abroad
The Dichotomy Structure 25
Empathy 36
Romance, Novel, Myth 38
4 National Cause and Private Conscience:
an Ethical Dilemma
Ethics and Secret-Agent Fiction 46
Ian Fleming and Aesthetic Replacement 47
John le Carre and the Holiness of the Heart's
Affections 50
Len Deighton and the Problem of Conscience 64
v
VI Contents
FORMULA AND VARIATION (II):
PLOT AND ROLE STRUCTURE
5 Plot
The Formula in Action: Observations on Reading
Dynamics 75
Formula Plot and Variation Plot 78
The Creation of Suspense 81
Assignment 87
Departure and Return 89
Ordeals 92
Conclusive Ordeal 95
Clarification 97
6 Roles and Characters
The Secret Agent: an Anonymous Hero 101
The Hero's Superior 117
The Hero's Helper(s) 128
The Adversary 131
FORMULA AND VARIATION (III):
A WORLD DIVIDED
7 Cold War, Detente and Secret-Agent Fiction
Formula and Reality 145
Loss of Empire and Search for a Role 148
8 Ian Fleming: Anachronism and Adventure
The Case for Anachronism 150
An Air of Superiority 154
From SMERSH to SPECTRE 160
9 John le Carre: the Enemy Within
In Search of Civitas 170
Fear of Extremes 180
Treason: Evil Incarnate 188
10 Len Deighton: Adjustment
The Presentation of Cliches 209
Disillusionment 211
Simplicity Regained 217
Contents vii
EPILOGUE
11 Formula and Evaluation 237
Notes 241
References 252
Index 256
Preface
When an undergraduate student of English at the University of
Aarhus, Denmark, I began to take a considerable interest in
thrillers for the simple reason that I liked them. Then, as now,
that particular branch of literature did not have a regular
appearance in the curriculum of English studies, and my reading
of thrillers remained a leisure activity. However, there is no doubt
that I have profited indirectly from thrillers with regard to my
studies programme in such matters as British upper-class country
house mores and British foreign-office activities, Californian law,
New-York-state police methods, etc! My liking for thrillers soon
developed into a more systematic and scholarly interest in thrillers
as literary genres, in particular the British secret-agent story. I
was given a chance by the Department of English at Aarhus
University in the autumn term of 1974 to try out my ideas in
confrontation with an interested though critical group of
students. The seminar helped me formulate possible analytical
approaches to the secret-agent story, which I sketched in a
successful application for a research scholarship at the Depart
ment of English, Odense University, Denmark. The scholarship,
which was granted in the spring term of 1977, was. followed by a
lectureship shortly after. In that capacity I have been able to
pursue my interest in thrillers as part of my regular research obli
gations while at the same time I have been required to teach the
traditional disciplines of literary history, literary criticism, etc.
The interaction between such established disciplines and my
research project on secret-agent fiction I have found extremely
stimulating.
In this prefatory note I wish to warn off the reader who expects
sensational insights into the secret and mysterious world of real
espionage. I have not in any way been interested in that parti
cular kind of realism. My book is a study of a specific thriller
genre and based on the stories of three popular writers whose
work has appeared since the Second World War. I have asked the
lX
X Preface
questions which I have considered relevant in a critical context,
i.e. questions which the genre itself seems to invite. No doubt
many readers would be curious about the extent to which John le
a
Carre uses a story like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as a roman
clef. Is Haydon, the traitor, modelled on Kim Philby? Such
curiosity is, of course, quite legitimate, but hardly within the
scope of literary criticism. As regards the particular figure of
Haydon, my curiosity has its origin in such areas as his plot
function, his significance for thematic emphases in the story, etc.
Instead of the cumbersome repetition of full titles of primary
sources, I have preferred the use of reference by initials. Ian
Fleming's Goldfinger, for instance, is referred to as G. For a full
list of abbreviations by initial see list of abbreviations and years of
publication of primary sources below, p. xiv.
Secondary sources are referred to currently in the text by
author's name, year of publication and page(s). If I have used an
edition other than the first edition, it is indicated by reference to
the first edition before a slash and the edition used after. Northrop
Frye's Anatomy ofCn"ticism from 1957, for instance, is referred to
as Frye 1957/1971.
I have excluded Ian Fleming's two collections of short stories,
For Your Eyes Only (1960) and Octopussy (containing 'Octo
pussy' (1966), 'The Living Daylights' (1966) and 'The Property
of a Lady (1971) ), as the short-story length is atypical of the
genre. Also, I am of the opinion that The Spy Who Loved Me
cannot possibly be included in the genre. Incidentally, this story
has been re-written from the film script by Christopher Wood
and published in 1977. Kingsley Amis, under the pen name
Robert Markham, attempted a continuation of the Bond stories
after Fleming's death. The only title which appeared was Colonel
Sun (1968). Two other James Bond stories have appeared since:
John Gardner's Licence Renewed (1981) and For Special Services
(1982).
John le Carre's other fiction includes the regular detective story
from 1962, A Murder of Qualz"ty, and the novel The Naive and
Sentimental Lover from 1971.
Deighton's interest in the history of war has resulted in a
number of war studies, Fz"ghter: True Story of the Battle of
Bn"tain (1977), Blitzkn"eg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of
Dunkz"rk (1979), Battle of Bn"taz"n (1980), two war novels, Bomber
(1970), and Goodbye, Mickey Mouse (1982) about raids on
