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The Karla Trilogy #1-3
Three Complete Novels: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / The Honourable Schoolboy / Smiley's People
Three complete, previously-issued novels, each a thrilling tale of espionage from the bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Considered the father of the spy thriller, bestselling author John le Carré brings the daring deeds and intricate details of international espionage to center stage. His leading man is George Smiley, sometime acting chief of the Circus (as le Carré's secret service is known): a troubled man of infinite compassion, yet a single-mindedly ruthless adversary.
Through these three enormously successful novels (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People), Smiley stalks his opposite number, code-named Karla, the Soviet case officer who has been masterminding the Circus' ruin. The stage is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and pavement artists, where men are turned, burned, or bought.
Considered the father of the spy thriller, bestselling author John le Carré brings the daring deeds and intricate details of international espionage to center stage. His leading man is George Smiley, sometime acting chief of the Circus (as le Carré's secret service is known): a troubled man of infinite compassion, yet a single-mindedly ruthless adversary.
Through these three enormously successful novels (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People), Smiley stalks his opposite number, code-named Karla, the Soviet case officer who has been masterminding the Circus' ruin. The stage is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and pavement artists, where men are turned, burned, or bought.
952 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
304 people are currently reading
1672 people want to read
About the author
John le Carré
370 books9,452 followersJohn le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
August 31, 2025
This is an omnibus edition of le Carré’s superb spy novels in the Karla Trilogy. Set during the Cold War, these novels describe the (purely fictional) struggle between the British and Soviet spymasters George Smiley and Karla. The labyrinthine plots, with a huge cast of incredibly believable characters, abound with moles, double agents, and traitors. Absolutely gripping stuff from start to finish.
February 23, 2021
It takes a while to get into Le Carre's sometimes dizzying and thoroughly British prose style -- full of terms and phrases only those born and raised in the Kingdom can read in a breezy way. But once I grew accustomed to the style and the seemingly glitchy way many of the characters speak, I found it served to hold the reader at an appropriate distance such that the utter "foreignness" of the subject matter (espionage) is even more pronounced and shrouded in a mystique reserved for a British elite... an elite that appears to be sullen and watchful compared to the more vigorous and well-funded Cousins (Americans). This distance and opaqueness premiates the series, but allows for a committed reader to be duly and fully rewarded with the crescendos of an ever engulfing plot.
Warning. Those expecting either a James Bond or a Jason Borne character to kick down doors or rappel down mountains in a blaze of bullets and explosions will be disappointed with the pace of these books. It will seem plodding and introspective. Boring, even. But I would just as soon find someone boring if they found these books boring. Take the lead character, George Smiley: he is everything Bond and Borne is not. He is aging, portly, and borderline antisocial. But it's his meticulous mind and pristine tradecraft that drive the plot. Other characters are fully explored and more than adequately provide the admittedly necessary excitement and impulsiveness lacking in Smiley.
These books are just as much detective novels as they are works of espionage. And as is fitting for a protagonist such as Smiley, the detective work constantly zooms inward to the personal and psychological as often as it does outward to the global and strategic. I was sad to have finished it, but heartened by one of my favorite characters, George Smiley.
Warning. Those expecting either a James Bond or a Jason Borne character to kick down doors or rappel down mountains in a blaze of bullets and explosions will be disappointed with the pace of these books. It will seem plodding and introspective. Boring, even. But I would just as soon find someone boring if they found these books boring. Take the lead character, George Smiley: he is everything Bond and Borne is not. He is aging, portly, and borderline antisocial. But it's his meticulous mind and pristine tradecraft that drive the plot. Other characters are fully explored and more than adequately provide the admittedly necessary excitement and impulsiveness lacking in Smiley.
These books are just as much detective novels as they are works of espionage. And as is fitting for a protagonist such as Smiley, the detective work constantly zooms inward to the personal and psychological as often as it does outward to the global and strategic. I was sad to have finished it, but heartened by one of my favorite characters, George Smiley.
December 6, 2022
Excellent
March 16, 2008
The absolute best of the espionage genre. Le Carre is a keen observer of human behavior, and often reveals insights even into the human heart. The good guys aren't that good. The bad guys - maybe not much worse. You never know where his stories will take you - and the ride is always worth it.
September 3, 2010
Nobody does it like John LeCarré, absolutely the best of the genre. And the BBC dramatizations did him justice.
April 24, 2010
Read the three novels in this collection a few decades ago and really loved them. But if anything, reading all three in quick succession this past week has been even more enjoyable. Today I ordered the "Tinker, Tailor" DVD. I enjoyed the BBC productions when PBS showed them back in the day. Nostalgia time, I guess, but really, these books are MOST enjoyable!
August 2, 2012
Ok, I did not finish this book. I plodded through it and put it down. I didn't like the main characters, and the ones that I got into, were taken away. I was reading it on a kindle and was busy so I kept putting it down which made it even harder to stick with.
I think it had to be 'me' not the book, and maybe we just weren't compatible.
I think it had to be 'me' not the book, and maybe we just weren't compatible.
July 3, 2025
*Solid 4*
This tome has been on my shelf for years—I impulse bought it from a library discard box after watching a whole bunch of le Carré adaptations—and I’d be lying if I said that reading these three novels back-to-back-to-back wasn’t a bit of a trial. While le Carré’s style is certainly methodical and icy, this is the type of spy narrative that I want when I sink into a narrative, when I step into a movie theatre, when I boot up a streaming service. His characters—even the bit parts—are filled with incredible humanity.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
*Solid 4*
I think my first exposure to le Carré was The Night Manager, the British TV show that aired in the states on AMC. The 2011 film adaptation of Tinker Tailor was my second. I was not prepared to be thrown into the deep end of le Carré's Cold War intelligence universe. When we talk about world building, we’re almost always talking about fantasy or sci-fi, but the vocabulary that le Carré uses here is near-uninterpretable to the uninitiated; it reminded me a bit of reading Dune. For all its difficulty, this strategy helped me feel deeply immersed into this world.
As I expected from my memory of the film, this is far more of a detective novel than a traditional spy thriller, delivered in a series of frame narratives that flash back into other characters’ perspectives. Interestingly, barely anything actually *happens* in this novel. George Smiley—the unlikely hero of this trilogy—simply sits in a series of rooms and interviews people. But it is riveting! le Carré’s dialogue is nuanced, realistic. This is what draws me to spy narratives: they are human stories with the highest of stakes. What ideals are people willing to put their lives on the line for? What self-destructive tendencies are they unable to suppress in service of those ideals? It is rich stuff.
The Honourable Schoolboy
*3.25/Strong 3*
Easily the weakest of the bunch for me, Schoolboy moves the action from the Circus (le Carré slang for MI6) in London to war-torn Southeast Asia. The perspective shifts from Peter Guillam—a young Smiley protégé who serves as something of an audience surrogate in Tinker Tailor—to a more Bond-like figure in Jerry Westerby. The resemblance does seem to be intentional. Westerby sleeps with dozens(?) of women over the course of the novel and develops an obsession with one of his marks. But le Carré lays bare the psychological damage that causes this kind of debauchery, and illustrates the consequences of that mental decay, seemingly in an attempt to portray a more realistic and human (and honestly, kind of Daniel Craig-esque) secret agent.
That doesn’t make it any more fun to read Westerby as the protagonist of Schoolboy, though. Easily the longest of the three novels here, it’s also the most convoluted and confusing. And the premise doesn’t have the same hook-y quality of Tinker Tailor or Smiley’s People—instead of a mole or a murder, Schoolboy opens with Smiley… discovering that an illegal bank account was opened in Hong Kong? Adding to the mental load, the portrayal of the Vietnam War and Cambodian Civil War is about as tasteful as you’d expect from a 1977 novel written by a British man. le Carré is trying to be anti-colonialist, but when you feature zero characters from the affected countries (with the possible exception of Phoebe, a Chinese-British source who has a standout appearance early on), it’s hard to think of the warfront as anything but set dressing.
Smiley’s People
*4.5/Light 5*
This one rules! It takes the detective story set-up of Tinker Tailor—who killed the General?—and ups the stakes. Instead of sitting in rooms around London, Smiley is back in action, globetrotting to Germany and Switzerland in what turns into a hunt for his arch nemesis, Karla. This is the first time we see Smiley up close and personal—in Tinker Tailor, Guillam sees him as a hero and mentor; in Schoolboy, Westerby sees him as a hypercompetent, if cold, handler. In Smiley’s People, we finally see him as he sees himself: kind of pathetic, tortured, and constantly questioning what the point of all this spycraft is.
Smiley is an optimistic avatar for the British people post-WWII—with the heights of empire in the rearview, and the logical conclusion of that ideology villainized in Nazi Germany, what even is the point of it all? What is British national identity? He is forced to develop his own system of morality, one that rejects dogma and fanaticism, and is instead deeply liberal and humanist. And yet, taking this tack loses Smiley professional and romantic scruples—his wife, Ann, is constantly cheating while he stays true to their marriage and his morals. Complicating things even further, when Smiley inevitably catches the proverbial car, he is conflicted about the methods by which he’s done so.
A worthwhile read, especially if you’re into spy fiction. Now that I’ve gotten through these, I can see their DNA in so much of my favorite media, from The Americans to Andor.
This tome has been on my shelf for years—I impulse bought it from a library discard box after watching a whole bunch of le Carré adaptations—and I’d be lying if I said that reading these three novels back-to-back-to-back wasn’t a bit of a trial. While le Carré’s style is certainly methodical and icy, this is the type of spy narrative that I want when I sink into a narrative, when I step into a movie theatre, when I boot up a streaming service. His characters—even the bit parts—are filled with incredible humanity.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
*Solid 4*
I think my first exposure to le Carré was The Night Manager, the British TV show that aired in the states on AMC. The 2011 film adaptation of Tinker Tailor was my second. I was not prepared to be thrown into the deep end of le Carré's Cold War intelligence universe. When we talk about world building, we’re almost always talking about fantasy or sci-fi, but the vocabulary that le Carré uses here is near-uninterpretable to the uninitiated; it reminded me a bit of reading Dune. For all its difficulty, this strategy helped me feel deeply immersed into this world.
As I expected from my memory of the film, this is far more of a detective novel than a traditional spy thriller, delivered in a series of frame narratives that flash back into other characters’ perspectives. Interestingly, barely anything actually *happens* in this novel. George Smiley—the unlikely hero of this trilogy—simply sits in a series of rooms and interviews people. But it is riveting! le Carré’s dialogue is nuanced, realistic. This is what draws me to spy narratives: they are human stories with the highest of stakes. What ideals are people willing to put their lives on the line for? What self-destructive tendencies are they unable to suppress in service of those ideals? It is rich stuff.
The Honourable Schoolboy
*3.25/Strong 3*
Easily the weakest of the bunch for me, Schoolboy moves the action from the Circus (le Carré slang for MI6) in London to war-torn Southeast Asia. The perspective shifts from Peter Guillam—a young Smiley protégé who serves as something of an audience surrogate in Tinker Tailor—to a more Bond-like figure in Jerry Westerby. The resemblance does seem to be intentional. Westerby sleeps with dozens(?) of women over the course of the novel and develops an obsession with one of his marks. But le Carré lays bare the psychological damage that causes this kind of debauchery, and illustrates the consequences of that mental decay, seemingly in an attempt to portray a more realistic and human (and honestly, kind of Daniel Craig-esque) secret agent.
That doesn’t make it any more fun to read Westerby as the protagonist of Schoolboy, though. Easily the longest of the three novels here, it’s also the most convoluted and confusing. And the premise doesn’t have the same hook-y quality of Tinker Tailor or Smiley’s People—instead of a mole or a murder, Schoolboy opens with Smiley… discovering that an illegal bank account was opened in Hong Kong? Adding to the mental load, the portrayal of the Vietnam War and Cambodian Civil War is about as tasteful as you’d expect from a 1977 novel written by a British man. le Carré is trying to be anti-colonialist, but when you feature zero characters from the affected countries (with the possible exception of Phoebe, a Chinese-British source who has a standout appearance early on), it’s hard to think of the warfront as anything but set dressing.
Smiley’s People
*4.5/Light 5*
This one rules! It takes the detective story set-up of Tinker Tailor—who killed the General?—and ups the stakes. Instead of sitting in rooms around London, Smiley is back in action, globetrotting to Germany and Switzerland in what turns into a hunt for his arch nemesis, Karla. This is the first time we see Smiley up close and personal—in Tinker Tailor, Guillam sees him as a hero and mentor; in Schoolboy, Westerby sees him as a hypercompetent, if cold, handler. In Smiley’s People, we finally see him as he sees himself: kind of pathetic, tortured, and constantly questioning what the point of all this spycraft is.
Smiley is an optimistic avatar for the British people post-WWII—with the heights of empire in the rearview, and the logical conclusion of that ideology villainized in Nazi Germany, what even is the point of it all? What is British national identity? He is forced to develop his own system of morality, one that rejects dogma and fanaticism, and is instead deeply liberal and humanist. And yet, taking this tack loses Smiley professional and romantic scruples—his wife, Ann, is constantly cheating while he stays true to their marriage and his morals. Complicating things even further, when Smiley inevitably catches the proverbial car, he is conflicted about the methods by which he’s done so.
A worthwhile read, especially if you’re into spy fiction. Now that I’ve gotten through these, I can see their DNA in so much of my favorite media, from The Americans to Andor.
December 5, 2008
Perhaps the best modern spy story ever, based loosely upon the Kim Philby scandal that rocked British and US intelligence in the early 1960's. Brilliant, complex and moody.....
September 24, 2009
These are the classic and perhaps the best novels about spycraft and the Cold War to be published by a masterful author.
October 28, 2016
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
The Honorable Schoolboy ✮ ✮ ✮
Smiley's People ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
The Honorable Schoolboy ✮ ✮ ✮
Smiley's People ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
August 15, 2024
Bättre än 60-talet, borde få 3,5. Lite tomt när man sträckläser men ändå mysig semesterläsning.
August 4, 2020
I think the first and last books of the trilogy (and it’s very loosely a trilogy at all) are the better books and stories here, in that order. The middle book, The Honourable Schoolboy (HS), is a dated and ridiculous story, told with head scratching comical exaggerations and a very typical 70’s movie ending: the protagonist is shot by the man, camera zooms out from a helicopter shot. I could not stop thinking that Le Carré had a big budget Hollywood movie script in mind while writing it, and if that is the case it would have been a flop. No one, thanks god, bothered to make the HS into a movie.
The superb story of the bunch, and to my taste one of the best of the best of the spy thrillers and a diamond in the rough of British novels in general is undoubtably Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It feels as if two different people wrote Tinker, etc. and the HS. Tinker, Taylor is so moody and contemplative and droll. An almost true to history exploration of topics beyond the fictional story. The swan song of the declining Britain of the mid twentieth century. The other is unadulterated mumbo jumbo, zooming over Hong Kong, Cambodia and Thailand in offensively off color racist characterizations and “humor”. Smiley’s People is a good sequel to the first and HS is a thin bridge explaining the character connections between the two. The anachronism of Smiley’s people is the quite deliberate jab at the pinkie Labour governments of the late 70s, who view the secret service as the ‘Tory viper in the nest.�� Brother Lacon (a civil servant) would be holding your tailcoats and reminding you not to be beastly to the Russians, etc.
The superb story of the bunch, and to my taste one of the best of the best of the spy thrillers and a diamond in the rough of British novels in general is undoubtably Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It feels as if two different people wrote Tinker, etc. and the HS. Tinker, Taylor is so moody and contemplative and droll. An almost true to history exploration of topics beyond the fictional story. The swan song of the declining Britain of the mid twentieth century. The other is unadulterated mumbo jumbo, zooming over Hong Kong, Cambodia and Thailand in offensively off color racist characterizations and “humor”. Smiley’s People is a good sequel to the first and HS is a thin bridge explaining the character connections between the two. The anachronism of Smiley’s people is the quite deliberate jab at the pinkie Labour governments of the late 70s, who view the secret service as the ‘Tory viper in the nest.�� Brother Lacon (a civil servant) would be holding your tailcoats and reminding you not to be beastly to the Russians, etc.
December 11, 2023
Smiley's People the Winner Other two are Lame.
Smiley's P almost failed,too. Too wordy. Got real two thirds thru. As le Carre wrote in the preface he did 'become' Smiley. But the descripton of him does not jive- a short fat badly dressed guy who has appeal to the supposedly ravashing ANN? And the story/plot doesn't make sense. I failed to understand the attack on the fat woman in the opening to the ending dealing with Karla's daughter. Was she the daughter of the fat lady? Why was she in danger? There was no answer. And KARLA'S collapse to 'save' his demented daughter after being so tough years ago in India turning down safety with Smiley's deal to go back to 'sure' death in Russia. It would have had a better ending in the same way that SPY WHO CAME IN FROM COLD' ended-shot dead at the Wall.
Also I am tired of le Carre taking cheap shots at better writers: Greene, Conrad, James. He s right though that Hemingway sucks.
Tinker I don't even remember the story though was only read weeks ago. Schoolboy was too Hollywood - a raunchy guy wearing dirty deer skin boots beds every woman in sight. He wasn't believeable. The bad Asian guy was the best character. Both these two books were very disappointing.
Smiley's P almost failed,too. Too wordy. Got real two thirds thru. As le Carre wrote in the preface he did 'become' Smiley. But the descripton of him does not jive- a short fat badly dressed guy who has appeal to the supposedly ravashing ANN? And the story/plot doesn't make sense. I failed to understand the attack on the fat woman in the opening to the ending dealing with Karla's daughter. Was she the daughter of the fat lady? Why was she in danger? There was no answer. And KARLA'S collapse to 'save' his demented daughter after being so tough years ago in India turning down safety with Smiley's deal to go back to 'sure' death in Russia. It would have had a better ending in the same way that SPY WHO CAME IN FROM COLD' ended-shot dead at the Wall.
Also I am tired of le Carre taking cheap shots at better writers: Greene, Conrad, James. He s right though that Hemingway sucks.
Tinker I don't even remember the story though was only read weeks ago. Schoolboy was too Hollywood - a raunchy guy wearing dirty deer skin boots beds every woman in sight. He wasn't believeable. The bad Asian guy was the best character. Both these two books were very disappointing.
December 17, 2017
Absolutely fabulous. Smiley's People was my first introduction to Le Carré and I still think it is one of his finest, followed by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the Honorourable Schoolboy. His descriptions of tradecraft, the dark, sometimes gloomy mood he manages to evoke through dialogue and setting, and the subtle, complex plot he weaves are masterful. The ability to transport the reader to widely varying places like London, Hamburg and Switzerland made the plot come alive in my mind. Smiley himself is one of the most brilliant, yet wonderfully flawed characters in fiction, and it is precisely because of those flaws that he is so believable. The hard cold war game of espionage truly drips from these three books. If you were to read anything of Le Carré: read these.
February 26, 2024
One of the Great Spy Stories
This is the second time I have read this great spy trilogy, the first was 40 years ago. I enjoyed it much more this time around. I think it gives us a more accurate description and more detailed picture of the intellectual aspects of the world of aircraft than the modern-day shoot 'em up spy genre. LaCarré writes from experience,not conjecture. A masterfully crafted work from a master writer.
This is the second time I have read this great spy trilogy, the first was 40 years ago. I enjoyed it much more this time around. I think it gives us a more accurate description and more detailed picture of the intellectual aspects of the world of aircraft than the modern-day shoot 'em up spy genre. LaCarré writes from experience,not conjecture. A masterfully crafted work from a master writer.
July 19, 2017
I read Tinker, Tailor a few years ago, so was just reading Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People in this volume. I found the climax of the Honorable Schoolboy a little hard to follow, though the book has its moments. Smiley’s People is definitely the strongest in the series, both in its depictions of spycraft and in the character work.
February 8, 2024
Revising the world of Smiley/ work of Le Carre'
These three stories are the best you can get from the Spy Thriller genre.
Re-reading them any number of time is as good as reading for the first time, maybe even better as you understand the nuances even more when you are not focussing on what will happen in next/ in the end.
These three stories are the best you can get from the Spy Thriller genre.
Re-reading them any number of time is as good as reading for the first time, maybe even better as you understand the nuances even more when you are not focussing on what will happen in next/ in the end.
December 10, 2019
The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi was played by Sir Alec Guinness, who had a distinguished acting career, including a stint on TV as George Smiley in the serializations of the popular spy novels Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. What author created the character of George Smiley?
May 17, 2018
The Karla Trilogy, all in one.
A long read, but well worth it as it traces the heart of one of fiction's all time great heroes George Smiley in heavy action.
A long read, but well worth it as it traces the heart of one of fiction's all time great heroes George Smiley in heavy action.
November 14, 2020
Finished Smiley's People - earlier this Fall read the first 2 in the Karla Trilogy and reviewed under their names - Tinker, Tailor, etc. and The Honorable Schoolboy - liked them all very much.
March 7, 2021
It was worth it to read them one after the other. Doing so led me to appreciate his dance around Smiley, his antihero, his God.
October 24, 2021
I love this triology more than life itself.
December 28, 2023
Excellent fiction
June 21, 2018
Symphonic in construction and scope. Three movements, middle contrasting: Smiley, Not Smiley, Smiley. Europe, Asia, Europe. Maybe even: counter-espionage, espionage, counter-espionage. The middle is the most American, paralleling the fall of Saigon to British mis-adventure in Southeast Asia, but also contrasting the Cousins' strength against the Circus's weakness. Jerry turns out to be the ablest and weakest choice for that mission, and bears out why he was not really one of Smiley's chosen people. TinkerTailor... includes Jim and Bill, both of whom were also not quite Smiley's people either, even though they counterpoint each other (as Smiley quotes Bill's schoolboy assessment of Jim). The last book is Smiley's people under the Maestro. Confiteor: I read this in three paperback volumes as it's more convenient for lying in bed.
August 5, 2024
Outstanding fiction, probably because it's based on real life which is always stranger than...
January 13, 2010
I just reread this collection of the three "Smiley" novels (in a Norwegian, which isn't quite the same thing, though the translator is good). The arena John le Carré creates here (or, rather, reports from, since he was a part of the real thing for a while) is the stealthy and paranoid world of Cold War espionage and counter-espionage, with the physically unimpressive spy-hunter George Smiley as the absent-minded and socially inept anti-hero.
The three books follow each other, not unlike the three main parts of "The Lord of the Rings" (come to think of it, it shouldn's surprise me if le Carré structured it this way on purpose): The first book (Thinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) concerns the hunt for a "mole" inside Circus, an thinly veiled version of MI6, defectors and all. The second has Smiley as a less central character, instead giving an operational agent named Jerry Westerby (the "Honourable Schoolboy) first billing, as he tries to locate and then secure an important Chinese defector. The third ("Smiley's People") concerns Smiley's attempt to penetrate the Soviet intelligence organization in a final battle with his nemesis, a the shady and very competent spymaster Karla.
I like these books for their accurate depiction of the fear underlying much of the cold war, the way "little people" become pawns in a game they (and, many times not their bosses either) understand. Aside from the gloriously tragic figure of Jerry Westerby, the spy game is one of meticulous investigations, bureaucratic frustrations, occasional high hopes with correspondingly deep disappointments. How far can you go in order to win - can you sacrifice people, sometimes with their consent, for an uncertain victory in a cause you are no longer sure about?
I think these three books are the best John le Carré wrote, with the possible exception of "The Little Drummer Girl". Reading them again brought back the haunting specter of the dictatorship next door, the nagging fear most people of my generation grew up with, the uncertain enemy with powerful weapons, fought by vicarious means with a realization that the individuals involved had very little to say in the big decisions. The question was - who, if anyone, had?
The three books follow each other, not unlike the three main parts of "The Lord of the Rings" (come to think of it, it shouldn's surprise me if le Carré structured it this way on purpose): The first book (Thinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) concerns the hunt for a "mole" inside Circus, an thinly veiled version of MI6, defectors and all. The second has Smiley as a less central character, instead giving an operational agent named Jerry Westerby (the "Honourable Schoolboy) first billing, as he tries to locate and then secure an important Chinese defector. The third ("Smiley's People") concerns Smiley's attempt to penetrate the Soviet intelligence organization in a final battle with his nemesis, a the shady and very competent spymaster Karla.
I like these books for their accurate depiction of the fear underlying much of the cold war, the way "little people" become pawns in a game they (and, many times not their bosses either) understand. Aside from the gloriously tragic figure of Jerry Westerby, the spy game is one of meticulous investigations, bureaucratic frustrations, occasional high hopes with correspondingly deep disappointments. How far can you go in order to win - can you sacrifice people, sometimes with their consent, for an uncertain victory in a cause you are no longer sure about?
I think these three books are the best John le Carré wrote, with the possible exception of "The Little Drummer Girl". Reading them again brought back the haunting specter of the dictatorship next door, the nagging fear most people of my generation grew up with, the uncertain enemy with powerful weapons, fought by vicarious means with a realization that the individuals involved had very little to say in the big decisions. The question was - who, if anyone, had?
August 17, 2019
1500 sidor jakt på Karla.
Mullvaden (= tinker tanker)
Utrensning på cirkusen, Smiley, Control, Guillam mfl ute.
Percy alleline och nya gänget styr (Bill Haydn, Roy Bland, Toby Esterhase).
Karla styr Moskva och har placerat en Mullvad i cirkusen.
Smiley utreder på sidan av, med gamla cirkus arbetare.
Falska tipsen har bland annat orsakat misslyckad kupp i Tjeckien, där Jim Prodeaux blev skjuten. Jim jagar också Mullvaden för hämnd.
En hedervärd skolpojke
Smiley leder cirkusen efter ”syndafallet”
Fokus på Asien och utrikeskorrar i Hongkong.
Nosar upp två bröder Drake Ko och Nelson som styr narkotikasmuggling samt infiltrerar Kinas säkerhetstjänst för Rysslands räkning.
Jerry Westerby spårar via piloterna Ricardo och Charlie Marshall och deras engelska Liese Lizzie Worth i Pnom Penh, Saigon, bevis på kopplingen mellan Hong Kong och Kina.
Lite rörig intrig.
Smileys krets
Smiley pensionär. Får upp spår via organiska för avhoppade exil balter.
”Saga” har hittats på av Karla för att plantera en oäkta dotter på psykklinik i Schweiz, under täcknamnet Ostrakova, förmodade avhoppare.
Smiley åker på privat jaktresa via Hamburg och Paris, från dödsfall på genererande, drar åt nätet allt hårdare via kurir Otto Leipzig, Grigoriev med familj i Schweiz till slut kommer K hinself över snöig Berlin bro.
Tappar Smileys gamla tändare från deras möte i Delhi. Smiley vann, men rollerna ombytta från när Karla attackerade Ann (via Bill H) till när Smiley nu attackerat via dotter.
Mullvaden (= tinker tanker)
Utrensning på cirkusen, Smiley, Control, Guillam mfl ute.
Percy alleline och nya gänget styr (Bill Haydn, Roy Bland, Toby Esterhase).
Karla styr Moskva och har placerat en Mullvad i cirkusen.
Smiley utreder på sidan av, med gamla cirkus arbetare.
Falska tipsen har bland annat orsakat misslyckad kupp i Tjeckien, där Jim Prodeaux blev skjuten. Jim jagar också Mullvaden för hämnd.
En hedervärd skolpojke
Smiley leder cirkusen efter ”syndafallet”
Fokus på Asien och utrikeskorrar i Hongkong.
Nosar upp två bröder Drake Ko och Nelson som styr narkotikasmuggling samt infiltrerar Kinas säkerhetstjänst för Rysslands räkning.
Jerry Westerby spårar via piloterna Ricardo och Charlie Marshall och deras engelska Liese Lizzie Worth i Pnom Penh, Saigon, bevis på kopplingen mellan Hong Kong och Kina.
Lite rörig intrig.
Smileys krets
Smiley pensionär. Får upp spår via organiska för avhoppade exil balter.
”Saga” har hittats på av Karla för att plantera en oäkta dotter på psykklinik i Schweiz, under täcknamnet Ostrakova, förmodade avhoppare.
Smiley åker på privat jaktresa via Hamburg och Paris, från dödsfall på genererande, drar åt nätet allt hårdare via kurir Otto Leipzig, Grigoriev med familj i Schweiz till slut kommer K hinself över snöig Berlin bro.
Tappar Smileys gamla tändare från deras möte i Delhi. Smiley vann, men rollerna ombytta från när Karla attackerade Ann (via Bill H) till när Smiley nu attackerat via dotter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2008
An omnibus of three character driven and highly cerebral cold war spy novels starring George Smiley of British intelligence. I found George Smiley to be a pleasantly anti-heroic hero. He is old, dumpy, frequently cuckolded, and the closest he gets to an "action sequence" is pulling flashback-ridden all-nighters sifting through old MI6 case files to catch a soviet mole.
The novels have a distinctly dim moral outlook. Essentially all personal relationships, be they friendship or marriage, seem to boil down to people using each other for some nebulously defined greater goal. Le Carre is very good at eking excitement out of paranoid office workers tracking double-agents through paper trails, then subverting that excitement with moral queasiness when that paper trail ends with a distant, violent, and ultimately senseless 'thump.'
At 948 pages, this is A LOT. I will admit to skimming parts of the Honorable Schoolboy (the looong middle book concerning 70s Hong Kong Soviet-Sino banking intrigue). I read a lot of these books in a short time and felt like my soul's vision was wearing dark sunglasses. It is a testament to le Carre's skill as a writer that these action-less, sometimes boring, often depressing novels are so addictive.
The novels have a distinctly dim moral outlook. Essentially all personal relationships, be they friendship or marriage, seem to boil down to people using each other for some nebulously defined greater goal. Le Carre is very good at eking excitement out of paranoid office workers tracking double-agents through paper trails, then subverting that excitement with moral queasiness when that paper trail ends with a distant, violent, and ultimately senseless 'thump.'
At 948 pages, this is A LOT. I will admit to skimming parts of the Honorable Schoolboy (the looong middle book concerning 70s Hong Kong Soviet-Sino banking intrigue). I read a lot of these books in a short time and felt like my soul's vision was wearing dark sunglasses. It is a testament to le Carre's skill as a writer that these action-less, sometimes boring, often depressing novels are so addictive.
October 25, 2011
In fairness to disclosure, I have almost every John le Carre's books. This one, I read when it came out and the impetus was to re-read it, since the movie is coming out soon and I had virtually no recollection of the story. Well I am glad I re-read it. This book is the first of a trilogy that le Carre' has written. ( I suspect had I not re-read the book I would have challenges following the movie)
This is not a spoiler alert, because the story is simple, but you will be wondering who is the mole or double agent in the book during the entire time.
To me Le Carre’ book brings back memories of Guy Burgess and Kim Philby (double agents & moles of the British Secret Service) the quest to find the mole, the double agent. That is the mission of George Smiley the anti James Bond of the British Secret Service. He is not the glamorous, nor is he the sexy male spy that women dream about. He is the overweight and an out of shape middle aged man, for whom you would not turn around twice if he walked by you.
This is not a spoiler alert, because the story is simple, but you will be wondering who is the mole or double agent in the book during the entire time.
To me Le Carre’ book brings back memories of Guy Burgess and Kim Philby (double agents & moles of the British Secret Service) the quest to find the mole, the double agent. That is the mission of George Smiley the anti James Bond of the British Secret Service. He is not the glamorous, nor is he the sexy male spy that women dream about. He is the overweight and an out of shape middle aged man, for whom you would not turn around twice if he walked by you.
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