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Title: Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0-89190-213-9 Publisher: Amereon Limited Pub. Date: 01 June, 1940 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: ATMOSPHERIC
Comment: Ashenden was particularly admired by Raymond Chandler, and that is what first interested me in it. It is the story, based on Maugham's own experience, of a British spy in the first world war. The 'story' is more a series of separate episodes, and I can easily imagine why it appealed to Chandler -- as well as the laconic detachment of the writing, there is almost a feel of Hammett here and there, notably the episode of the Hairless Mexican. Much of the action centres round Geneva, a city I personally like, and there is a peculiar fascination in the voyage of the lake-steamer going in and out of the war-zone as it alternates between Switzerland and France. This kind of spy did not have much in common with the heroes of Len Deighton or John Le Carre -- the job reminds me more of how J K Galbraith described the life of an ambassador, ninety percent boredom and ten percent panic, like being an airline pilot. It has its grim side too as you would expect. One of the most memorable pieces is the story of the traitor Grantley Caypor. Some years ago Ashenden was serialised on the BBC, with Caypor superbly played by Alan Bennett. What that production did not even try to reproduce was what happened at the moment of Caypor's execution, unforgettable in Maugham's cold prose.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Father of Modern Spies
Comment: Worth a read for historical reasons as it is one of (if not the) first modern spy novels. That said, it is very far away from the intricately woven page-turners featuring brainy CIA types bedding winsome females that we tend to think of as being sp novels today. Maugham served in the British intelligence corps in WWI and drew heavily upon his own experiences in writing this book, indeed the epynonymous hero is a well-known writer by profession. Each chapter is almost its own vignette, illustrating some experience or aspect of the intelligent agent's life. The theme is that the agent's life is marked by dullness and inability to know the "big picture." Ashenden is based in Switzerland and undertakes his assignments (none of which involve gunplay or physical prowess) dutifully, yet the reader feels, with a certain ambivalence. There is one especially haunting scene where, for once, Ashenden witnesses firsthand, the repercussions of his actions.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Precursor to Greene, Ian Flemming, Eric Ambler,LeCarre`
Comment: Considered by many afficionados of the Spy Novel genre` as the first of it's kind. Written in 1928, the book is a series of stories loosly connected to reveal the sometimes tedious, sometimes adventureous events in the work of a spy in MI5 during the latter stages of World War I. Maugham is given credit by Graham Greene and Eric Ambler as being their inspiration and Ian Flemming borrowed much from the book, including M who was "R" in Maugham's book. Maugham was given the impossible task to squelch the Bolshivic revolution with 56,000 pounds given to him by the government of Lloyd George and he fictionalizes this in the story "Mr. Harrington's Washington." The story "The Hairless Mexican" inspired Hitchcock to write and direct the movie "The Secret Agent" with John Guilgud and Peter Lorrie. This book to my thinking is one of the hidden classics in literature, written by a writer highly underrated because of his popularity and some of his later works that he did purely for money. A must for lovers of the Edwardian period and those who ever wondered where the Burbury Trench Coat came from.
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Title: Tremor of Intent: A Novel by Anthony Burgess ISBN: 0393004163 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: July, 2004 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Book of Spies : An Anthology of Literary Espionage by ALAN FURST ISBN: 067964251X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Coffin for Dimitrios (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375726713 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Cakes and Ale (Vintage International) by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0375725024 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 05 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Tears of Autumn. by Charles McCarry ISBN: 0841503095 Publisher: Penguin USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 1974 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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