John Le Carré

Three Complete Novels ( Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / The Honourable Schoolboy / Smiley's People )

Hardcover, 952 pages

English language

Published Sept. 30, 1995 by Wings.

ISBN:
978-0-517-14697-2
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4 stars (6 reviews)

4 editions

Review of 'John Le Carré ' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The perfection of the pacing and plot aside, John le Carré is an exceptional writer, giving just the right detail to create a scene and navigating the complexities of class and society with an artists ease. The characters have their unique views and they express them profoundly.

Plus his spy-jargon is pitch-perfect and so smoothly inserted into the story that it took me half the book to realise I was reading something like "the headmen scoping a deaddrop picked up a double they could use for stock with the Cousins" and knew exactly what was going on without even thinking about it.

reviewed John Le Carré by John le Carré (George Smiley (5))

Review of 'John Le Carré ' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Boring and outdated.

Apart from the cold war stuff, where we ar supposed to root for the rests of the English empire, there ar also bits where yu ar supposed to know what an “old Alvis”¹ looks like. The rest is upper middle clas English men in the 1970s being upper middle clas English men from the 1950s. (They ar extra conservativ, yu see.) With all the casual sexism³, clasism, chauvinism and whateverism yu expect.

“… Which will cost him ten bob …”. Oh, dear. The 1950s bit was supposed to be a joke, but Our Hero Smiley has not adjusted to the 1970s with no shillings, and still thinks that 50 p is real money.

“‘Gerstmann's gaze made me feel like a fifth-rate imperialist oppressor.’ He smiled. ‘And that I assuredly am not.’” Fourth rate? Third rate? I wouldn’t go as high as second rate.

You lose …

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4 stars
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Subjects

  • Spy stories, English
  • Espionage/Intrigue
  • Non-Classifiable
  • Sale Books
  • Smiley, George (Fictitious character)
  • Fiction
  • Great Britain
  • Sale Adult - Fiction - Espionage Thriller
  • Intelligence service