The Book of Spies: An Anthology of Literary Espionage

by Alan Furst (Editor), Anthony Burgess, John Steinbeck, John le Carré, Rebecca West

Overview

Here is an extraordinary collection of the world’s best literary espionage, selected by Alan Furst, a contemporary master of the genre. The Book of Spies brings us the aristocratic intrigues of The Scarlet Pimpernel, in which French émigrés duel with Robespierre’s secret service; the savage political realities of the 1930s in Eric Ambler’s classic A Coffin for Dimitrios; the ordinary (well, almost) citizens of John le Carré’s The Russia House, who are drawn into Cold War spy games; and the 1950s Vietnam of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, with its portrait of American idealism and duplicity. Drawing on acknowledged classics and rediscovered treasures, A Book of Spies delivers literate entertainment and excitement on every page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375759598
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/08/2004
Series:	Modern Library Classics Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.15(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

ALAN FURST is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. He is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, and Blood of Victory, all of which are available as Random House Trade Paperbacks. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York.

Hometown:

Sag Harbor, New York

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

B.A., Oberlin College

Interviews

Alan Furst describes the area of his interest as “near history.” His novels are set between 1933–the date of Adolf Hitler’s ascent, with the first Stalinist purges in Moscow coming a year later–and 1945, which saw the end of the war in Europe. The history of this period is well documented. Furst uses books by journalists of the time, personal memoirs–some privately published–autobiographies (many of the prominent individuals of the period wrote them), war and political histories, and characteristic novels written during those years.

“But,” he says, “there is a lot more”–for example, period newsreels, magazines, and newspapers, as well as films and music, especially swing and jazz. “I buy old books,” Furst says, “and old maps, and I once bought, while living in Paris, the photo archive of a French stock house that served newspapers of Paris during the Occupation, all the prints marked as cleared by the German censorship.” In addition, Furst uses intelligence histories of the time, many of them by British writers.

Alan Furst has lived for long periods in Paris and in the south of France. “In Europe,” he says, “the past is still available. I remember a blue neon sign, in the Eleventh Arrondissement in Paris, that had possibly been there since the 1930s.” He recalls that on the French holiday le jour des morts (All Saints’ Day, November 1) it is customary for Parisians to go to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. “Before the collapse of Polish communism, the Polish émigrés used to gather at the tomb of Maria Walewska. They would burn rowsof votive candles and play Chopin on a portable stereo. It was always raining on that day, and a dozen or so Poles would stand there, under black umbrellas, with the music playing, as a kind of silent protest against the communist regime. The spirit of this action was history alive–as though the entire past of that country, conquered again and again, was being brought back to life.”

The heroes of Alan Furst’s novels include a Bulgarian defector from the Soviet intelligence service, a foreign correspondent for Pravda, a Polish cartographer who works for the army general staff, a French producer of gangster films, and a Hungarian émigré who works with a diplomat at the Hungarian legation in Paris. “These are characters in novels,” Furst says, “but people like them existed; people like them were courageous people with ordinary lives and, when the moment came, they acted with bravery and determination. I simply make it possible for them to tell their stories.”

Editorial Reviews

A master of the form culls from the cream of the cloak-and-dagger crop. . . . Twelve expertly chosen tales of secret operatives: shadowy and elusive, cunningly written and thrillingly fraught with peril.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Spanning nearly three quarters of a century . . . this handy sampler touches on many high points of spy writing. . . . In this case, fiction is more thrilling than truth.”
—Time Out New York

“[A] dazzling anthology . . . The writing—whether displaying the cold clarity of Maugham or the pained lyricism of McCarry—is splendid.”
—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

One look at any best seller list will remind reviewers, readers, and librarians of the popularity of the mystery, spy, or espionage novel. In this compilation of some of the greatest works of espionage literature, Furst, a widely recognized espionage writer (e.g., Kingdom of Shadows; Red Gold), reminds readers in the introduction, citing the Old Testament, that spying is one of the oldest professions known to humanity. This volume-which features work by such writers as Eric Ambler, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Conrad, Maxim Gorky, Graham Greene, John Steinbeck, and Rebecca West-doesn't break new ground, but it does place the genre in perspective, using it to explain human nature within history, national security, and the context of war. Furst used two standards for including writers in the anthology: five of the authors, having served in the intelligence services for their country, write from "practical, firsthand experience," while others had experience with living under or working in a particular political climate, where they learned to view the "world as a theatre of deception." This very literary look at a popular genre is recommended for all libraries with large collections of thrillers. [This anthology is published to coincide with the paperback release of Furst's 2002 best seller Blood of Victory.-Ed.]-Pam Kingsbury, Florence, AL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A master of the form culls from the cream of the cloak-and-dagger crop. Having possibly already supplanted le Carré as the most popular writer of the spy genre, Furst (Blood of Victory, 2002, etc.) is as good a choice as any to headline this anthology. In an introduction, Furst lets us know he's not after any old Bond knock-offs here, but wants good writing ("we are here in the literary end of the spectrum") and "the pursuit of authenticity." To that end, he made some excellent choices (fortunately taking sections out of novels as opposed to using only shorter pieces) that more than fulfill the rules he set for himself, where the characters "work at the sharp edge of the Manichean universe." Things start off promisingly, with Eric Ambler's 1939 "A Coffin for Dimitrious," about a mystery novelist who pursues the ghost of arch-criminal/political operative Dimitrious across Turkey and the Balkans. Ambler's voice is martini-dry and brilliantly focused on the details, but the real genius is the fleeting face of Dimitrious himself, who could well have been the inspiration for Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects. Le Carré, of course, shows up here, but unfortunately, it's a good-enough but unspectacular bit from "The Russia House" (George Smiley is the great, notable absence in this volume). A gem mostly forgotten is W. Somerset Maugham's semiautobiographical "Ashenden," whose titular British WWII spy is fey and given to extravagance: Oscar Wilde on a mission and saddled with a conscience. A memorable episode from Graham Greene's The Quiet American is another surprising but excellent choice (a lesser editor would have assumed that Our Man in Havana was the one to go with), while Steinbeck's TheMoon Is Down, Anthony Burgess' Tremor of Intent, and Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel round things out quite nicely. Twelve expertly chosen tales of secret operatives: shadowy and elusive, cunningly written and thrillingly fraught with peril.

Kirkus Reviews