The Paper's reporter Cheng Qianqian compiled
British spy novel master John le Carré died in Cornwall, England, on the evening of December 12, local time, at the age of 89. His Cold War thriller novels are nuanced and intricately plotd, elevating western and Soviet spies to artistic heights by portraying Western and Soviet spies as cogs in moral compromise in a decadent system full of betrayal and personal tragedy.
His publisher, Penguin Random House, announced on December 13 that Le Carré's cause of death was pneumonia.
Le Carré
His longtime agent, Jonny Geller, called him "the undisputed giant of English literature". "He defined the Cold War era and in the decades that followed bravely told the truth to power... I lost a mentor, a source of inspiration, and most importantly, a friend. We won't see anyone like him again. ”
His colleagues also saluted him. Stephen King wrote: "This terrible year has taken away a literary giant and a humanitarian spirit. Robert Harris said the news left him "very sad ... He was one of Britain's greatest novelists after the war and an unforgettable and unique character. Adrian McKinty described his Potmaker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as "the greatest spy novel of all time," while historian Simon Sebag Montefiore called him "a giant of English literature, on a par with great men... Fascinating, very friendly and generous to me and many others. ”
"Pot Makers, Tailors, Soldiers, Spies" Book Shadow, Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Producer: Century Wenjing
Born in 1931 and formerly known as David Cornwell, Johann Le Carré began working for the Secret Service in the late 1940s while studying German in Switzerland. After teaching at Eton College, he joined the British Foreign Office as an intelligence officer, working in a backstage office in the MI5 building in London, recruiting, operating and caring for spies behind the Iron Curtain. Inspired by michiren colleague and novelist John Bingham, he began publishing spy novels under the pseudonym John Le Carré.
"Summoning the Dead" Book Shadow, Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Producer: Century Wenjing
In Le Carré's first work, Call for the Dead, he created a spy modeled after Bingham, "astonishingly ordinary... Short, chubby and quiet in temperament", he cleverly defeats an East German agent in Summoning the Dead, the debut of Le Carré's most immortal character, George Smiley. His second novel, A Murder of Quality (1962), in which Smiley investigates a murder in a public school and receives rave reviews. (The Observer concluded: "This is a very complex high-level detective novel.") And a year later, when his third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, was published, Le Carré's career took to a whole new level.
"Berlin Spy Shadow" Book Shadow, Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Producer: Century Wenjing
Schmidt is only a minor character in Spy Berlin, and the story of the confrontation with East German intelligence is full of his world-weary cynicism. Graham Greene praised it as "the best spy story I've ever read." Before that, the classic image of the modern British spy was Ian Fleming's James Bond — mild-mannered, loyal to the queen and country, foddering espionage myths as charismatic, exciting frolicks. This view is subverted by Le Carré's book, which portrays British intelligence operations as an ambiguous sinkhole, with right and wrong at hand, difficult to judge, and even if the purpose is clear, it is difficult to see whether the means are justified.
According to Le Carré, the novel's great success surprised him first and then contradicted him. He explained in 2013 that his manuscript was approved by the Secret Service because it was "completely fictitious from start to finish" and could not represent a security breach. However, "this is not a view held by the world's media, the book is not only true, but also conveys a message from the other side of the world." Leaving me with nothing to do, I watched it change in a frozen sense of awe. Because it climbed the bestseller list and stayed there, which authoritative experts later said was true. ”
Smerley took center stage in three novels published by Le Carré in the 1970s, which depicted the struggle between the obese British agent and his Soviet nemesis, Kara. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he exposes a spy at the highest level of the British Secret Service; in The Honourable Schoolboy, he tracks down a money laundering operation in Asia and then pieces together Carla's connections in Switzerland in Smiley's People.
The New York Times said of Le Carré: his experience as a secret agent in England as a young man, and his experience of in-depth field research as a writer, branded his novels with authority. But he used reality as a starting point to create an indelible fictional world.
In his book, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as M.I.6. In the United States, agents are known as "circuses," operations involving seduction are called "honey traps," and agents who penetrate deep into the enemy are called "moles." These words were widely used, if not of his own invention, to whom he was credited. This claim was used by real British spies to describe their work, just as the mafia incorporated the language of the "godfather" into their mythology.
"Like Tolkien, Woodhouse, Chandler, and even Jane Austen, this closed world is a complete world," the critic Boyd Tonkin wrote in The Independent. "Through the 'circus' of Britain and the 'circus' of the Soviet Union, Le Carré created a laboratory of human nature; a test track full of broken hearts and brains that could be destroyed."
When the Cold War was coming to an end, friends would stop him on the street and ask, "What are you going to write about now?" But Le Carré's concerns were always broader than those of east-west confrontation. He didn't have much patience for the idea that the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of history or espionage that powered its mechanisms. His work covers a wide variety of topics, including Rwanda, Chechnya, Turkey, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. In 1993, he worked with Night Manager on arms deals; in 2001, he worked with the Constant Gardener on big pharma companies; and in 2004, he worked with Absolute Friends on the war on terror.
If he had political ideas to articulate (and he did more and more), he would still wrap them in elegant, complex plots and unmistakable descriptions; he could draw a complete character in a single sentence. He has written a steady stream of bestsellers, with at least six novels— including A Perfect Spy, which Philip Roth called "the best postwar English novel" — a classic. But he will always be best known for his Cold War novels.
"Perfect Spy" Book Shadow, Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Producer: Century Wenjing
At the same time, his work was continuously uploaded from the pages to the screen. Actors including Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Ralph Fiennes and Gary Oldman relished the subtleties of his character, while audiences applauded his skilful plot design.
In 2017, Le Carré wrote Smiley's story for the last time, ending his career as a spy. A Legacy of Spies is yet another testament to the remarkable writing skills he became famous for. Writing in The Guardian, John Banville praised his ingenuity and skill, saying that "never since this spy has Le Carré used his gift for storytelling so powerfully and achieved such exciting results".
In 1999, Timothy Garton Ash wrote in The New Yorker: "Thematically, Le Carré's real theme is not espionage. He wrote about the endless mysteries of human relationships: betrayal is a love, lies are a truth, good people serve bad people, bad people serve good people. ”
Le Carré refused to allow his work to participate in the literary prize. But many critics consider his book to be first-rate literary.
"I think he was a novelist who transcended genres and would probably be considered the most important novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain," Ian McEwan told the Daily Telegraph in 2013. McEwan said Le Carré "has an unparalleled portrayal of Britain's decline and the nature of the bureaucracy".
"Pigeon Tunnel" Book Shadow, Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Producer: Century Wenjing
For decades, Le Carré has been portrayed as a mysterious figure, largely because he was not interested in shaping the public image or willing to tour the festival. In 2016, he published his memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, which shocked the world. In the book, Le Carré meticulously describes his broken relationship with his abusive cheater father and his lonely upbringing after being abandoned by his mother at the age of 5. Le Carré also detailed his peculiar life from spy to writer when Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch invited him to lunch. Le Carré lived in Cornwall for 40 years, married twice, and raised a son, Nicholas. He also wrote novels under the name Nick Harkaway. Le Carré said: "I am neither a model husband nor a model father, and I am not interested in creating such an image. ”
His lifelong passion was writing, "writing like a man hiding behind a bulky desk."
He wrote: "Beyond that secret world that I once knew, I tried to build a theater for the larger world in which we lived. First imagining, then looking for reality, then going back to imagination, back to the table I'm sitting on now. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Luan Meng