Masaryk university

The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Iran Military Web. 5 March 2009 Sanders, Andrew.:Op.cit.,p.473

98 Rudyard Kipling. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. 15 October 2009. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling> Priestman, Martin.: Op.cit.,p.116

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99most specifically by the forming and shaping of organized intelligence services in the period before WWI. In my opinion, the growth of the British publishing industry at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the following century also contributed to increasing interest in novels including spy thrillers. These books usually depicted some good and evil characters and featured current politics. By the end of the nineteenth century a fear of the enemies was not so fundamental tha ts why it stopped functioning. Around that time the glamorizing of a British spy went on, mostly in popular press, at the turn of the century the interest of the public was mostly put on Germany and Russia. It was also probably one of the reasons why in England, a variety of writers had used espionage as a main theme in their stories at the beginning of the twentieth century. Espionage put on imagination rather than actual life is connected with William Tufner Le Queux. Espionage in his eyes was glamorized. This author mainly wrote the genres of mystery, thriller and espionage, particularly in the years around World War I. “ His Duckworth Drew´s adventures were precursors to later ones focused on new te chnol ogy, such as an “el ect ronic eye” – an Italian device that detonated mines.” 100 “ Apart from Le Queux, the novelist usually credited with shaping the spy genre is E.Phillips Oppenheim. His The Great Impersonation (1920) reveals the interesting theme about German aggression. This novel starts its plot with meeting of two old fellow students in East African bush, one German – Baron Leopold von Ragastein, one English Sir Everald Dominey, who had a striking resemblance to each other. One of them got an idea to impersonate each other because he was interested to gain an access to the higher society. Oppenheim´s novel The Great Impersonation was made and remade into successful movies several times. Oppenheim wanted to show the fall and failure of Germany in the world war. Another Oppenhei m´s novel The Kingdom of the Blind (1916), is a story about the German sinking of the British ship the Lusitania in 1915” . Hungarian-born British novelist Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947)101, remembered as author of the Scarlet Pimpernel from the times of the French Revolution depicting adventurous stories of the Sir Percy Blakeney, who was entrusted with smuggling French aristocrats from their country to the safe place. In her another work - The Old

99 100 Britton, Wesley. A. Beyond Bond: Spies in fiction and film. Westport: Praeger Publishers. 2005. p.6 101 E.Phillips Oppenheim. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. 10 December 2009. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Philips_Oppenheim> Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.738

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102Man in the Corner (1901), presented a hero who was a new kind of detective. She presented here a different sort of an educated man whose most values is intelligence. She also write detective stories, including Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910) and Unravelled Knots (1925). Her Lady Molly of Scotland Yard was an early example of a female detective as the main character. She wrote sequels - The Elusive Pimpernel (1908), The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1933). She is mainly valued for her womanly intuition.

th 4.3- The Novel of Adventure As it was said before, the international relations in the world changed, a feeling of national insecurity started to appear and as well as a rivalry between many countries, especially between Great Britain and Russia became more and more visible. In this period novel with spy elements can be found in some novels of adventure. The adventure novels influenced spy novels and some of their elements can be seen in them. In the sense of a narrative it is typical for the adventure genre that a main figure or other major characters are placed in dangerous situations. “ The adventure novel has its roots in the medieval romance with its knight hero in quest for adventure, developed from the Spanish picaresque through English and French 18th century examples (notably Defoe, Smollet and Lesage), in the 19103 century, with works by Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper, Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson etc. “ In the 18th century novels of adventure were addressed to a broad mass reading public which corresponded with the contemporary public likings for such literary genre. Literally it is a genre which is associated with adventure as its main theme. A construct of an adventure means an exciting story involving risk and physical danger but also courage and effort of its hero(s). The hero of a typical adventure novel has to undergo a set of adventures to reach his/her goal. Adventure novels often overlap or blend with other genres, first of all with war novels, spy novels, crime novels, fantasy,

102 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.738

103 On the Borders of the Adventure Novel: Narratives of 18th-Century Travel in Indian Territory. Web \erea \revues. 20 December 2009

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science fiction etc. 104105 The te rm “adv e ntur e” is concer ned with thi ngs tha t come to pass or happen, every adventure is associated with events and with the individuals. The events are based on risk, danger, surprise, and nothing ordinary. The happenings and events in such a story are typically unpredictable and unforeseen. Many literary works contain elements of adventure, or use adventure as a medium, although their main concern is elsewhere. “The adventure novel must create with the help of literary means, a sense of adventure, or at least an adventure effect. There are two main ways in which this effect is typically created. First, there is the creation of a persona who is the subject of the adventure, often it is the first person narrator. The reader identifies with him/her, and there is an evocation of the inner state of the subject, which can be more or less active, sometimes heroic (the adventure type) or passive and suffering (the victim). Second, there is the use of narrative techniques that elicit vicarious emotions of adventure in the reader, oft through the responses of the person. “ Common techniques can include the build-up of excitement, fear, or horror, the intimation of possibilities (suspense), the continual introduction of sudden, unexpected new developments etc. In repeated cycle, there can be a build-up of tension, a crisis and a release, and then more of the same.” Parallel to the adventure novels there exist a non-fictional literature of “t rue” adventur e (literature of facts). The spy novel became well-established to develop a new stream of authors who used spy novel as a background for the twenty-century feeling of the disintegration of human personality, uncertainty of human relations, and, finally, the aimlessness of human destiny. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1836) also deserves acknowledgement as being among the earliest writers of the secret agent short story genre. Rudyard Kipli ng´s “ Kim” (1901), which was based on the Great Game (espionage and politics) between Europe and Asia in Afghanistan. Kipli ng´s novel takes places in India. An Anglo-Indian boy using his Indian origin as a cover for colonial espionage during the Great Game. The story of Kim is about a boy who succeeded to be recruited by the British Secret Service and under their guidance he became a spy for a mission. The story is also about Kim´s desire to be accepted towards the Empire. Though Kim wanted to be accepted, he had no loyalty to

104 105 The Adventure Novel. Wikipedia Free Encyklopedia. 18 October 2009 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/adventure_novel > On the Borders of the Adventure Novel: Narratives of 18th-Century Travel in Indian Territory. Web \erea \revues. 20 December 2009