The Day of the Jackal

by Frederick Forsyth

English language

Published Dec. 4, 1982

ISBN:: 978-0-553-26630-6

(31 reviews)

The Day of the Jackal (1971) is a thriller novel by English author Frederick Forsyth about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French dissident paramilitary organisation, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.The novel received admiring reviews and praise when first published in 1971, and it received a 1972 Best Novel Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The novel remains popular, and in 2003 it was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.The OAS, as described in the novel, did exist and the book opens with an accurate depiction of the attempt to assassinate de Gaulle led by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry on 22 August 1962; the subsequent plot is fiction.

9 editions

Wetdryvac reviewed The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Review of 'The Day of the Jackal' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's weird doing the research around this. Bits and pieces of real detail, a flavor of history... I learned a lot from the surrounding stories while I read, and came away entertained, but not greatly enamored. Significantly less misogynistic than I expected, which was nice, but very much in vein with Flemming's undertones, if not the overt ass-hattery I find in Bond.

shrugs

So a fun read, but mostly for the other stories it led me to.