Reading espionage fiction : narrative, conflict and commitment from World War I to the contemporary era / Martin Griffin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Griffin, Martin, 1956- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spy stories, English--History and criticism.

Spy stories, English.

Espionage in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 186 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

Summary:

'Reading Espionage Fiction' probes the ways in which the struggles and loyalties of political modernity have been portrayed in the espionage story over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. Reading works by authors such as Somerset Maugham, Helen MacInnes, John le Carré, Sam E. Greenlee and Gerald Seymour as popular literature deserving of sustained attention, this book shows how these narratives have both created a modern genre and, at the same time, sought an escape from its limitations. Martin Griffin takes up the importance of plot and character and argues that, in this branch of fiction, the personal has always and ever been political.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Revisiting Ramón Mercader, 1966

1. The Maugham Paradigm: Performing English Identity amid the Surges of History

2. The Past as Prologue: Antifascism and the Prophetic Mode in Ambler and MacNeice

3. "We'll Meet Again": War, Memories, and Loss in MacInnes and Garve

4. John le Carré and the Jews

5. The American Uncertainty: Genre and Borders in Charles McCarry and Don DeLillo

6. Race and Intelligence: African-Americans and the Secret Life

7. The Soldier's Song: Britain's Irish War in Gerald Seymour's Trilogy

8. Espionage Fiction and the Lost Adversary: Carlyle and Mathison

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 31, 2026).

ISBN:

1-3995-2081-4