Literary Agents: The Novelist As Spy - Hardcover

Masters, Anthony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631149791 ISBN 13: 9780631149798

Publisher: Blackwell Pub, 1987

Synopsis

Spy novels have been one of the most successful literary genres of the 20th century. But how many of their authors were spies themselves? In this book, the authors penetrate the shadowy world of British Intelligence in an attempt to uncover some of the less celebrated activities of well-known literary names. From John Buchan during and after World War I and Compton Mackenzie in the tense and suspicious 1930s, the story continues through the World War II exploits of Graham Greene and Malcolm Muggeridge to the post-war era of Ian Fleming and John le Carre. The author explores his subjects' attitudes and responses to their varying experiences and suggests how these experiences were transmuted into fiction - and how the secret services tried to prevent this. The reality of espionage work was not always the thrilling, momentous and intricate world depicted in much modern spy fiction. Often humdrum, and sometimes frightening, frequently absurd and bathetic, the facets of this world are as varied, and as surprising, as the subjects of the book - and their own fictional characters - themselves.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Masters's account of the secret-service experiences of 13 writers (all British except for E. Howard Hunt) is disappointing. There's a general lack of solid material and there are many trivial but not-insignificant mistakes: Somerset Maugham had a severe stutter, not a club foot; Buffalo is not quite "a suburb of Hamburg to the west of New York." Aside from the thinness of the individual accounts, Masters's interpretive comments are too generalized and often undeveloped. Spying, in his view, is "a useful means of escape from personal responsibilities." The author (The Man Who Was M, etc.) also opines that writers are "a subversive crowd, nothing if not traitors"an intriguing concept that he leaves unexplained. The chapters on Maugham and Ian Fleming are the fullest, if only because both men seem to have been more active in their wartime careers than most of those dealt with here. Among the others are John Buchan, Compton Mackenzie, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene and John le Carre. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackwell Pub
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0631149791
• ISBN 13: 9780631149798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288