Masaryk university

MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

The Spy Novel in English Literature

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2010

Supervisor: Written by: Ph Dr.Pave l Doležel, CSc. Leon a Bu zrlov á

Prohláše ní: Prohl ašuji, že jse m na mé dipl omové prá ci pracoval a samosta tne a použila jsem pouze ty zdr oje , kte ré jsou uvedeny v bibliografii. Souhlas ím, aby ta to dipl o mová prá ce byla ulož ena v Informacním syst ému Mas ar ykovy univer zit y, prí padne v knihovne Pedagogi cké fakulty, a slouž ila tak akade mic ký m úcel um. Declaration: I declare that I worked on my diploma thesis on my own and I used only the sources listed in the bibliography. I agree with this diploma thesis being deposited in the Information System of the Masaryk University, eventually in the Library of the Faculty of Education, and with its being taken advantage for academic purposes. Brno, 17 April 2010 Leona Buzrl ová

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Acknowledgement: I would li ke to expr ess my ver y sinc ere tha nks to PhDr. Pavel Doleže l, CSc. for

providing me with many pieces of great advice, bringing me in many useful ideas, and supporting me throughout the whole course of my writing.

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CONTENT

1. Introduction: The aim of the thesis..........................................................5 - 8 2. The purpose of espionage.........................................................................9 - 13 3. The first novels with crime elements and their development...............14 - 17 3.1. The Newgate novel...........................................................................17 - 21 3.2. The sensation novel...........................................................................21 - 22

3.3. The main difference between the Newgate and sensation novel..................................................................................................22 - 23

3.4. The other novelists and authors of the Victorian era........................23 - 26 4. The spy novel in English literature.........................................................27 4.1. The first spy novels and their authors...............................................27 - 30 4.2. The glamorising of spy novel............................................................30 - 33 4.3. The novel of adventure.....................................................................33 - 37 4.4. The deglamorising of spy novel........................................................37 - 41 5. The postwar period of spy novel.............................................................42 5.1. Ian Fleming.......................................................................................42 - 44 5.2. Other postwar spy novelists..............................................................44 - 48 5.3. The post-war American espionage authors.......................................48 - 51 6. The typical feature of a spy hero............................................................52 - 53 6.1. James Bond phenomenon.................................................................53 - 56 6.2. The characters of villains in a spy novel...........................................56 - 57 6.3. Villains in spy novel with James Bond.............................................57 - 60 7. The books with spy plot...........................................................................61 7.1. Casino Royale (1953)........................................................................61 - 64 7.2. Funeral in Berlin (1964)....................................................................65 - 67 7.3. The Tailor of Panama ( 1996)............................................................67 - 71 8. Conclussion..............................................................................................72 - 74 9. Resumê .....................................................................................................75 10. Bibliography.............................................................................................76 - 81

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1. Introduction: The aims of the thesis This diploma thesis, carrying title The spy novel in English literature is concerned

with the literary genre of spy fiction – sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller which came into existence before World War I at about the same time when the first modern intelligence agencies started to appear. The whole body of the diploma thesis is divided into several chapters which deal with the theme of spy novel. Each single chapter contains its own theme connected with the main theme of the diploma thesis, which all together give a general view of the nature and development of this literary genre. The first introductory chapter is connected with the aim of my diploma thesis. As the result of my diploma theses I decided to collect the most important information concerning spy fiction and to give to a reader of my diploma thesis a general view of this genre, its rise, nature, features, development and examples of the authors who represent spy fiction. The second chapter of the diploma thesis will be dedicated to the historical background of spying and to the purpose of espionage. The beginning of spying is associated with the ancient civilization, through information on the spying in Old England and finishing with modern espionage using the latest techniques and equipment. The significance of spying itself in military matters has been namely recognized since the recorded history, and spies are as old as history as well. In this chapter the main emphasis will be placed on the explanat ion of the word “espionage” and its meaning. Spying is presented not only as a negative but also as a positive activity which can save human lives. Spying can help make the world safer, especially in time of terrorism, regional instability, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, white slavery and illicit traffic of drugs. The third chapter of the diploma thesis deals with the beginning of crime fiction, whose roots can be seen in so called Newgate novels which played a very important role in English literature and which influenced the development of many other literary genres, especially the development of such later genres as the sensational novel and the detective novel are. Most Newgate novels drew their inspiration from the Newgate Calendar, a published biography of famous criminals, which were described as the sympathetic heroes in crime literature before the end of the nineteenth century. Newgate

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novels were written by male authors. In contrast to the Newgate novels, the sensational novels did not picture the criminal world but they rather featured the seamy sides of respectable or noble society and their plots depicted the criminal deeds. Within this chapter I pay attention to the main differences between the Newgate and sensational novel. The conclusion of the chapter is dedicated to the novelists and authors of the Victorian era like Reynolds and his Mysteries of London, Thackeray´s novel called Catherine Hayes which is considered to be Thacker ay´s attack on Newgate novels, but in the matter of fact it is often accepted as a Newgate novel itself. The focus is put also on such authors like George Eliot, Mrs. Gaskell, Anthony Trollope or Thomas Hardy who did not glamorize the crime, but they saw it in his realistic substance, Trollope even with a light scent of satire. The fourth chapter contains information concerning the rise of the spy novel in English literature, the first spy novels and their authors like James Fenimore Cooper, known for his tales of the early frontier or Erskiene Robert Childers with his novel Riddle of the Sands. The attention is also paid to the predecessors to twentieth– century detective and espionage fiction, which were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. Within this chapter, as well as Edgar Allan Poe is worth of mentioning as the inventor of the detective story, appreciated for his tale of mystery. The second part of the fourth chapter puts emphasis on the explanation of the international relations in the world and feeling of national insecurity, which both related to the period called the Great Game based on the rivalry between Great Britain and Russia. The rise of spy novel before WWI can be then connected with such a significant feeling of national insecurity in time of changing international relations, which leads to the fact that spies are presented in a way of glamorizing. This glamorizing of a British spy was visible even in popular press. The thesis points out that at the turn of the century the interest of the public concentrates on Germany and Russia, and a new stream of espionage based on imagination rather than on true life began to appear around that time. On the one hand there were writers like William Tufner Le Queux who glamorised their spies, and on other hand there was another group of authors who deglamorised them and saw them as normal human beings with their mistakes - Josef Conrad ranks among such the authors. Le Queux put a big emphasis on the spying based on imagination. The attention is paid also to Walter Wood whose works contain elements of xenophobia, especially in his book The Enemy in our Midst, or to E. Phil lip Oppenhei m´s n ovel The Great Impersonation and also to baroness Emma Orczy who is remembered as the author of

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Scarlet Pimpernel. As well as adventure novels can not be left out from this chapter because they influenced spy novel and some of their elements can be seen in them. Moreover, adventure novels often have tendency to blend with other genres, especially with crime novels, spy novels, war novels, fantasy etc. After primary espionage stories of Doyle and Poe, also Rudyard Kipling deserves the same acknowledgement as being among the ear liest writers of the sec ret agent shor t story genr e. Most of the Kipli ng´s stories were set in India and dealt with the fighting between the native Indian people and the British. Gilbert Keith Chesterton is another great literary personality of spy and detective fiction whom the attention is paid to. He is praised for creating his Father Brown and John Buchan for creating his spy stories with political background. Last part of the chapter features the authors including Eric Ambler, Somerset Maugham and especially Graham Greene, who often described lonely spy individuals on the verge of a state government. After WWI, the next phase of espionage literature reflects spies in a relatively critical perspective of official state authority. The fifth chapter is dedicated to the postwar period (after WWII) of spy novel which is associated with the Cold War, a competition between democratic capitalism and Soviet socialism. The Cold War turned espionage to an escalating industry and provided authors with various material to work on. Postwar spy fiction is dominated by the Fleming´s J ames Bond novel s. No le ss popula r in this period is John Le Carr é, Len Deighton, Francis Clifford, Nigel West or the authors from the United States including Thomas Pynchon, James Grady, Charles McCarry, Clive Eric Cussler who all deserve acknowledgement in this chapter. The sixth chapter deals with typical features of a spy hero. It gives a general view of a typical spy, a person who usually gather military, political and nowadays also industrial data about one country for the benefit of another. Spy is supposed to have certain general features which are common for all spies. But not all the spies are the same. Of course, there are distinctive differences among them, something which makes them unique. And this part of my diploma thesis is intended not only to general characteristics of a typical spy but also to description of factual literary heroes in spy novels. I devoted here re latively a big spac e to Fleming´s James Bond figure because I think that he is the most famous figure in spy fiction at all. James Bond, Harry Pendel, Harry Palmer... have all something in common, but in spite of that fact they are all really unique. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the James Bond phenomenon, the

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second one with characters of villains in a spy novel and the last one with villains in spy novel with James Bond. The following - seventh chapter concentrates its attention on the books with spy plot including Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton and The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré . All these books belong to spy fiction genre. Though they have lots in common, they also have certain special features which distinguish them from each other and which are typical for their authors. These books serve as real examples of spy novels used in the diploma thesis for their mutual comparison. The last chapter closes the diploma thesis with generalization of acquired and processed information and summarize the most important facts and ideas of the theme to give a comprehensive view of spy fiction genre, its rise, nature, features, development and examples of the spy novels representing authors.

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2. The Purpose of Espionage

1 The best battle is the battle that is won without being fought. Sun Tzu In today´s world a pie ce of news is getting a bigger and bigger importance and its

2value is increasing all the time. Who has right information is sometimes mightier than the one who has lots of money. No matter where we are, we get in touch with information - from newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, personal daily contact with people etc. Almost every day we are confronted with various information concerning stealing data from data bank, information leakage, industrial or economic espionage, political spying and other similar activities. The newspapers are often full of articles about an industrial espionage or about the police who uncovered an internet spy network that hacked into computers owned by governments and private organizations in various countries. Such and other news can feed us everywhere whenever we go. The world becomes smaller and interconnected due to globalization and information plays more and more important role in it. Even our forefathers truly appreciated and valued information. They knew the significance of information and could prosper from it. Information and the obtaining of information always played a very important role for them. And just espionage was one of the ways how they could get such valuable and important information. Espionage comes fro m the Frenc h word “es pionnage” , means spyi ng and fro m “es pionne r” , means to spy. The espionage can be considered as the use of spies to detect secret information about a country, an organization or their systems. The obtained information is then regarded as secret or confidential. Spies mostly operate in an unstable and dangerous world. Knowing the situation can provide other party an immense advantage or odds

1 Bradford, Alfred S. With Arrow, Sword and Spear: A history of Warfare in the Ancient World. Wesport: Praeger Publisher, 2000, p. 36

2 Espionage. The Meriam-Webster Dictionary. 18 March 2009