Title: Eric Ambler /
Authors: Ambrosetti, Ronald J.
Publisher: Twayne Publishers ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International,
Year: 1994
Subjects: Ambler, Eric, Criticism and interpretation.; Spy stories, English History and criticism.; Espionage in literature.; Spies in literature.
Abstract: Born in London in 1909, Ambler had by the age of thirty produced a group of novels that would forever change the fundamental nature of the suspense thriller. In such works as Dark Frontier (1936), Background to Danger (1937), Epitaph for a Spy (1938), and A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939), Ambler eschewed the cloak-and-dagger formula of what he called "the old secret service thrillers" for a new kind of spy story that concerned itself with the psychological, social, philosophical, and political issues of the modern age. He sought to "intellectualize' the older, anemic spy story," Ambrosetti writes, and drew from his intensive reading of Friedrich Nietzsche, C.G. Jung. Oswald Spengler, and other modernist thinkers and writers to do so.
Contents: Ch. 1. "The Weird Multiplier": From Detective to Spy -- Ch. 2. A Spy in the House of Ratiocination -- Ch. 3. Dark Crossings: Twilights of the Gods and the Psyche -- Ch. 4. The Eternal Return: Dionysus as Dimitrios -- Ch. 5. Picking Up the Pieces: From the Phony War to the Cold War -- Ch. 6. Facing East: The Orientation of Eric Ambler -- Ch. 7. Ambler Redux: Fruition and Finale.