1) What are the three vantage points from which Aronoff explains le
Carré’s ambiguity?
2) Define liberal temperament.
3) In what ways are the lives of David Cornwell and Magnus Pym similar?
4) What are the major themes of the book?
Chapter 1 George Smiley:
Liberal Sentiment and Skeptical Balance
1) Describe Smiley. Does he sound like a hero? Why or why not?
2) What impression do you have of Smiley from the early novels?
3) How do you interpret Smiley’s encounter with Karla in the Delhi
jail?
4) What is your impression of Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
(TTSS)?
5) Characterize and discuss “Smiley’s Dilemma.”
6) Discuss the critic’s different evaluations of Smiley.
7) How would you characterize Smiley’s creed articulated in The Secret
Pilgrim?
8) Explain the notion of “countersaying” and how it applies to le Carré.
9) Explain the notion of “skeptical balance.”
Chapter 2 Ambiguous Moralism: Loyalty and Betrayal
1) What was E.M. Forster’s position on personal loyalty and patriotism?
2) How does le Carré’s view the tension between personal and
institutional loyalty?
3) Why does Smiley feel the “nausea of guilt” after killing Dieter
in self defense?
4) Who is Roach the prototype of in TTSS?
5) Enumerate the various betrayals of the mole in TTSS and indicate
which you think are the most reprehensible.
6) In the real world why was Kim Philby warned so that he could escape
while George Blake received the heaviest sentence in modern British history?
7) Who was Smiley’s “black Grail” and what is the literary allusion?
8) What is the moral lesson Magnus Pym represents in A Perfect Spy
according to Aronoff? Explain why you either agree or disagree with his
interpretation.
9) Explain the comparison made by Aronoff between le Carré and
Jan Steen.
10) Does le Carré agree with E.M. Forster’s position? Explain
your answer
Chapter 3 Skepticism: Balancing Dreams and Realities
1) What is the basic assumption of the phenomenological approach?
2) What adjustment did Samuel Fenan make in Call for the Dead?
3) Explain: “Rejecting self-imposed ignorance is, in le Carré’s
vision, the measure of integrity.” (Beene, 1992:50)
4) What is the most significant influence of Smiley’s absence from
The Looking Glass War and A Small Town in Germany in terms of the theme
of this chapter?
5) Why is The Little Drummer Girl a major turning point in the development
of le Carré’s writing?
6) What is the proper relationship between idealism, faith, dreams,
illusion, and realism according to le Carré?
7) What metaphor does Aronoff use to illustrate the importance of flexibility
and balance in elucidating le Carré’s skepticism?
8) What was George Young’s position on the role of the spy? How does
Aronoff characterize le Carré’s position?
Chapter 4 Balancing Means and Ends: Limits of Raison d’état
1) Define Max Weber’s distinction between an ethic of ultimate ends
and an ethic of responsibility.
2) Apply Weber’s concepts to explain a key decision made by Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during WWII in
the example given by Aronoff.
3) In what way does the nature of the central dilemma discussed in
this chapter change after WWII during the Cold War?
3) Characterize how the central theme is treated differently in le
Carré’s post-Cold war novels.
4) What ethical question raised in chapter 1 is discussed in the comparison
between Gadi Becker (The Little Drummer Girl) and Andrew Julian Osnard
(The Tailor of Panama)?
5) Discuss Aronoff’s explanation of Smiley’s Dilemma. Do you find it
convincing? If so, why? If not, why not?
Chapter 5 The Ambiguity of Human Nature: Motives and Personality
1) What is le Carré’s view of human nature?
2) What metaphor does le Carré have Smiley think of when contemplating
Bill Haydon’s motives?
3) What was le Carré’s reply to the question why so many of
his spies were “children who had not grown up or adults who have reverted
to childhood”?
4) Name and describe the five personality types discussed in the chapter
and give an example of each from le Carré’s characters.
5) What are le Carré’s two favorites among his novels and why
does he favor them?
Chapter 6 Bureaucratic Politics: Domestic and International
1) What major transformations did the Circus undergo in Smiley’s career
with it?
2) How does le Carré characterize relations between British
intelligence agencies?
3) How does he characterize relations between British and American
intelligence agencies?
4) How does he portray the alliances made between competing agencies
within Britain with their counterparts in the United States?
5) How has the end of the Cold War influenced bureaucratic politics?
Chapter 7 The Culture and Craft of Espionage
1) Does le Carré aim for authenticity or credibility? Explain.
2) What types of agent recruitment are discussed?
3) Compare two examples of agent handling.
4) Compare Smiley’s interrogation techniques with those of Kurtz in
The Little Drummer Girl and of the CIA agents interrogation of Barley Blair
in The Russia House.
5) What makes for a good case officer?
Chapter 8 Fiction and the Real World of Espionage
1) What parallels does Aronoff draw between le Carré’s depiction
of post WWII Britain and the experience of the United States at the end
of the Cold War?
2) What is the most extreme example of the politicization of intelligence
in recent US history?
3) Why is the evaluation of the success of covert operations so difficult?
4) Why is there a need to redirect intelligence targeting in the post-Cold
War era and what are some of the most important targets?
5) What is the main problem posed by intelligence systems identified
by Ransom?
Chapter 9 Learning to Live with Ambiguity: Balancing Ethical and Political
Imperatives
1) In what way does The Little Drummer Girl represent a turning point
in le Carré’s novels and why is it ironic?
2) Which of le Carré’s novels is even more optimistic and why?
3) What are le Carré’s two favorite novels that he has written
and what is their main moral point?
4) Explain the meaning of “learning to live with ambiguity.”
5) Explain the notion of skeptical balance.