Understanding John Le Carré
By: John L. Cobbs.
Series: Understanding contemporary British literature
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 297
Subjects: Le Carré, John, 1931- -- Criticism and interpretation.; Spy stories, English -- History and criticism.; Smiley, George (Fictitious character); Espionage in literature.; Spies in literature.
Other titles: John Le Carré
Description: Understanding John le Carre provides an introduction to a writer who is arguably twentieth-century England's most successful serious novelist and unquestionably the foremost living figure in English literature of espionage and detection. John L. Cobbs examines le Carre's life and work to identify the roots of his commercial and critical achievements.

Cobbs establishes that le Carre's writing transcends the genre of espionage fiction, to which it is so often relegated, and that le Carre, like most of the great English novelists, is preeminently a social commentator who writes novels of manners.

In a biographical sketch of the writer, Cobbs describes le Carre's relationship with his father, his often overlooked academic success, his choice of a pseudonym, and his reputation as one who once worked in British intelligence, perhaps as a spy.

In a critical overview of his literary career, Cobbs examines le Carre's primary themes, including the importance of the Cold War, the pull of conflicting loyalties, the corruption of bureaucracy, the tension between the individual and the state, personal betrayal rationalized by misguided idealism, and the pathos of vulnerable humanity in the grip of amoral and impersonal political and social institutions.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-286) and index.
Table of contents: title: Biography and career; title: Overview; title: Loomings : Call for the dead and A murder of quality; title: The spy who came in from the cold; title: The coldest war : the Looking-glass war and A small town in Germany; title: Interlude : The naive and sentimental lover; title: Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy; title: Cold war in the wings : The honourable schoolboy; title: Last illusions : Smiley's people; title: The theatre of the real : The little drummer girl; title: Whose name was writ in water : A perfect spy; title: The cold war wanes : The Russia house and The secret pilgrim; title: Better than Bond : The night manager; title: All sorts and conditions of men : Our game; title: The captains and kings depant : The tailor of Panama.