Masaryk university

83 Sanders, Andrew.:Op.cit.,p.405

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novel Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (1870-1922) came up in 1903.

85

86

87

90

84 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.184 Sanders, Andrew.:Op.cit.,p.408

85 Erskine Childers. Fantastic Fiction Web. 10 May 2009. Drabble, Margareth. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University

Press. 1997. p. 195.

86 Priestman, Martin. The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.2003. p.118,137.

87 Priestman, Martin.:op.cit.,p.49

88 The Adventure of Second Stain. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. 23 March 2009. Plot summary: His Las Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Helium Web. 28 March 2009 < http://www.helium.com/items/1788310-sherlock-holmes-his-last -bow

89 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.785

90 Britton, Wesley A. Beyond Bond: Spies in fiction and film. Westport: Praeger Publishers. 2005. p.5 84

88

8

9 Erskiene Robert Childers was writer and political activist. He is remembered for his novel Riddle of the Sands which is the story of two amateur English yachtsmen who sailed to the Frisian Islands and found out the German invasion preparation plans of England. . Childers skillfully linked a story of a yachting on the Frisian Islands with a detection plot. The novel contained within the text a number of maps and charts so that reader could the events visually. This novel totally avoids the sensationalism and xenophobia of Le Queux and other contemporaries. A handful of further literary characters such as Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, were also clearly important predecessors to twentieth-century detective and espionage fiction. “According to Holmes, the “i deal dete ctive” needs not only “t he power of obser vation and tha t of deduct ion” but also “knowledge” . Though Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is more known as a author of detective fiction, some of his stories are in matter of fact early examples with the spy elements, e.g. The Naval Treaty, The Second Stain. In His Last Bow is the main protagonist Sherlock Holmes himself even as a double agent giving false data to the German army during the World War I. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, literary critic and editor who is also worth of mentioning as for the authors engaged in detective story. Poe is known for his tale of mystery and is considered as an inventor of the detective story. Two Edgar Allan Poe´s stories are regarded as early spy stories. The Purloined Letter (1845) featured C.Auguste Dupine who was more spy than detective. Po e´s Gold Bug

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91(1843) can also be considered to be a spy story, as the focus was put on the writer´s interest in ciphers and codes.th “ In general, it can be said that detective stories can be divided between the American, which are set in the world of industry and finance, and those which more focus on the family and family life, home. Agatha Christie (1890-1976), one of the most successful female detective writers of the 2092 century. “ Fleming is somewhat Dickensian in his villains. The Bond is not a one-dimensional figure, he is the narrator almost in all the novels (except The Spy Who Loved Me). Although Holmes and Bond have something in common, Bond does not have his Baker Street and Holmes does not have Bond´s sexua lity . The mission of Bond is central, and he is a dedicated servant of the right cause. What is common for them, both are gentlemen and each of them is significant for the detective literary genre. “ Unlike the “Queens of Cri me” – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Patricia Wentworth or P.D.James – with their emphasis on domestic settings, there was a strong interest in a wider world in both Doyle and Fleming “ th 4.2 The Glamorizing of Spy Novel In the second half of the 1993 century the international relations changed and a feeling and perception of national insecurity started to appear in the world. Moreover there was a rivalry among many countries, especially that between Great Britain and Russia. It was first of all a complex of rivalry linked with wars, assassinations, and espionage conspiracies. The Great Game was something like later the Cold War. The rivalry between Great Britain and Russia was cal led “ the Great Game” and ra nged fro m Euro pe to the Far East. The Great Game is a term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the above mentioned nations for the supremacy and priority in Central Asia. 94 The classic Great Game period is generally dated from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. The competition for influence in the

91 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.786

92 93 Britton, Wesley A. Beyond Bond: Spies in fiction and film. Westport: Praeger Publishers. 2005. Pp.203 94 Britain vs Russia. The Great Game. 3 December 2009 The Great Game. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. 12 October 2009

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95territory that separated Russia and Great Britain became then also called as the Great Game. The British were afraid that Russia might gain Russian influence in Asian area (Persia and Afghanistan) and use it first of all for the military purpose. “ On borders of India – so cal le d “the Game” forced Brit ai n into mil it ary advent ure as in Afghanistan as in Tibet. But the British had to face increasing pressure by Russia also in the other area of the Great Game, the Near East (Turkey) “96 Russian power was over under the Czar Nicholas II in the first decade of the twentieth century. In August 1907, the AngloRussian Convection in St. Petersburg formally closed the Great Game, although a certain rivalry, tension and espionage have tendency to go on. 97 The rivalry between Great Britain and Russia was also over with the beginning of the WWI when both these nations had to fight together against Germany – the fact that nobody would have believed several years before – Germany was considered and seen as an imminent menace. From the literally point of view, the term “ the Great Game” is apparentl y associated with Arthur Conolly, a British intelligence officer who served in India. This person was introduced in Rudyard Kipli ng´s novel Kim (1901), which is regarded as a spy novel because it deals with espionage plot. 98 The spy story as a mix of international intrigues and adventure novel appeared to exist before World War I. Around that time the first modern intelligence services started to be formed. Their rise of the intelligence services was influenced by feeling and perception of national insecurity in the world with changing international relations. The action in these spy novels is mostly evidently political. The genre is mostly concerned with an international subject which determines and defines the genre by some means. As it was said before, spy novel as the genre itself is difficult to be defined because its borders between the crime novel and the adventure novel are not clear. General heroes of this new fiction were mostly and “typically young, male, athletic, handsome gentlemen, usually only making amateur excursions in the field of espionage.” . We can assume that the spy novel development at the beginning of the twentieth century was inspired

95 96 Britain vs Russia. The Great Game. 3 December 2009