Chapter 1

1. Because le Carré’s works have been published in so many different editions by different publishers, I refer to the year of first publication. Quotations are accompanied by reference in brackets to the chapter and page from the edition I cite. Complete references are given in the bibliography.

2. In The Perfect Spy (see chapter 2) le Carré reveals in fictional form much about his turbulent relations with and ambivalent feelings for his father, a convicted con man. For a revealing interview with le Carré based on this book, see Joseph Lelyveld (1986). In The Secret Pilgrim (1990:11) le Carré, speaking through Ned, says: "There were times when I thought of him as some kind of father to replace the one I never knew." Many, if not most, of le Carré’s central characters express similar sentiments.

3. Michael Adams (1989:1046) notes the ironies in his name. "His name is doubly ironic since Smiley wears an emotionless mask, and George is the name of England’s dragon-slaying patron saint and of the kings who were heads of state during the two world wars."

4. I briefly discuss each in this chapter, including very briefly A Murder of Quality (1962), which is really more of a murder mystery than a spy novel, as is A Call From the Dead (1961). Glenn W. Most (1987) gives a fascinating analysis of le Carré’s work in terms of the mystery genre and his radical innovations, which he suggests, may herald the demise of the genre.

5. LynnDianne Beene (1992:24)concludes that Smiley "epitomizes British decency and the ineffectual efforts of an existential humanist beset by the psychological and moral dilemmas his profession symbolizes." Abraham Rothberg (1987:53) notes "Smiley’s role as the voice of reason, common sense, and decency" and as "the defender of an independent and competent intelligence service." Peter Wolfe (1987:67) maintains that Smiley "isn’t trying to salvage innocence, which vanished long ago, if it ever existed, but a modicum of integrity. Amid tawdriness, he stands for honor, duty, and decency." Laurence Stern (1977:E1) describes him as "an English bull of tenacity and loyalty to agency and patria." For Lars Ole Sauerberg (1984:35), "Smiley and the other le Carré heroes are constantly endeavoring to restore the world according to their sense of human decency." Eric Homberger (1986:86) comments that: "Smiley accepts the logic of the service; however, he tries to temper it with compassion and humanity." George Grella (1976:25) observes that Smiley provides a "moral center" in those novels in which he appears. Richard Bradbury (1990:131) says, "Smiley becomes the personification of moral and political pragmatism and . . . the ‘living centre’ of the novels; the character with whom the reader is ‘required’ to identify."

6. There is considerable discussion in the literature attempting to identify the real person(s) and literary characters who served as the model for Smiley. For example, see Carter S. Wiseman (1975:26) and Beene (1992:148). Charles A. Brady (1985:282) and S. S. Prawer (1980:132) suggest that Father Brown, Chesterton’s fictional clerical hero, may have been an additional literary model for Smiley. Homberger (1986:34) claims, "It was to [Maugham’s] Ashenden that we owe Smiley." Among other qualities, he points out the "healthy scepticism" they both shared. I develop the importance of skepticism in chapter 4. See also Paul Vaughan’s (1979:339) interview with le Carré. In an earlier essay, in honor of the ninetieth birthday of P. G. Wodehouse, le Carré (1971:25) mentions a man with whom he worked in the embassy in Bonn, "a prince" who shared Cornwell’s fondness for Wodehouse and Wodehouse’s (and Smiley’s) nostalgia for "an England before the Fall."

7. In response to a direct question by Robert McNeill, who paraphrased a lengthy speech by Smiley, le Carré replied: "Yes, it is me talking and this was me talking really before the perestroika began and it was me being terribly tired of the stalemate in the cold war" (McNeill-Lehrer Report, 1989). Although many contemporary literary critics believe that it is either impossible or irrelevant to determine the author’s point of view, I think that it is both possible and important to do so.

8. That same year, he was assigned as second secretary to the British embassy in Bonn. "At the time, so the consensus of rumour goes, le Carré served in M15 under Maxwell Knight." (Bold, 1988:13).

9. Helen S. Garson (1987:73-4), playing on the metaphor, says: "Smiley is a prince forever imprisoned inside the frog." Leroy L. Panek (1987:36-7) alludes to the couple as "Beauty and the Beast," "Princess and the Toad," and compares Smiley to Mr. Toad from Wind in the Willows, who becomes "more frog-like than ever." Perhaps part of Smiley’s appeal to me is that since my youth, when I caught tadpoles in a local pond and watched with fascination as they became frogs, I have had a special fondness for them.

10. His portliness is also conveyed through descriptions of his fleshy, bespectacled face and his chubby wet hands. Bill Roach, a schoolboy in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, is a friendless, fat asthmatic from a broken home and a natural "watcher." In an interview, le Carré volunteered that at school, he was much like Roach. Le Carré describes Smiley as "the final form for which Bill Roach was the prototype" (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 18).

11. The Honourable Schoolboy: 41, 489.

12. Sauerberg (1984:114) points out the "pariah" nature of le Carré’s heroes. Although Smiley is a "social misfit" and all le Carré’s heroes have "outsider status," the term pariah is too strong.

13. When referring to his biography, I use David Cornwell’s real name, and when referring to him in his capacity as author, I use his pen name.

14.The mystery of human motivation is explored in Chapter 5.

15. Having run off with a Cuban racing driver, "she announced enigmatically that if she hadn’t left him then, she never could have done" (1:7). "With grudging admiration she admitted to herself that if there were an only man in her life, Smiley would be he" (1:8).

16. Garson (1987:74-5) considers his love for Ann "Smiley’s greatest vulnerability." Panek (1987:37) defines Smiley’s quest for her love as "Sisyphean." Charles A. Brady (1985:283) calls Smiley "a figure of pathos." Wolfe (1987:70) contrasts his "core of steel" with "his softer side, which makes him a victim of the past, of his dreams, and of his spiritual unrest."

17. Wolfe (1987, in a chapter titled after the first chapter in Call for the Dead, "A Brief History of George Smiley") notes his frailness, remoteness, gentleness, kindness, tenderness, compassion, magnanimity, caring, and rich humanity.

18. John Halperin (1980:20) mistakenly says that Smiley is labeled "the Head Eunuch."

19. In The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (8:85), Alec Leamas reveals Smiley’s transfer to his interrogator. Andy East (1983:172) notes his return a decade later in his profile of Smiley.

20. Wolfe (1987:70). I discuss these changes and the topic of bureaucratic politics in chapter 6.

21. Alvin P. Sanoff (1989).

22. In Henry Zieger (1965:123). Cited in Andy East (1983:170).

23. Owen Dudley Edwards (1988:44-7), in a persuasive line-by-line comparison of le Carré’s account with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four, concludes "that the entire passage seems not merely a debt to Conan Doyle, but an act of homage to him," and that by comparing Dieter with Stapleton, "we can see more clearly Dieter’s redemption at his moment of death." Edwards discusses many other important literary influences on le Carré as well.

24. "Who was then a gentleman" was the call of Wat Tyler’s peasant revolt in fourteenth century England. It was taken from the phrase "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?" from the revolutionary sermon at Blackheath of John Ball, an excommunicated priest, who fomented Tyler’s insurrection. Ball (and Tyler) advocated the claims of bondsmen to be put on terms of equality with the gentry. Their project was to set up a new order founded on social equality. This was the only instance of such a radical social theory appearing in the Middle Ages. Le Carré associates the radical Dieter with the first social radicals in English history. I have been told that this inscription is carved on the misericord (a support against which choir members can lean while standing) in Worcester Chapel in Worcester, England. I am grateful to Michael Zuckert for drawing my attention to this. See Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1977:11) and Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography (1968:1:995).

25. He had just murdered one of his agents in cold blood to prevent her from being taken prisoner by the British. He had previously had her husband, an innocent third party, murdered in an effort to prevent him from exposing his wife (Dieter’s agent). He had attempted to kill a friend of Smiley’s who was assisting him on the case. His agent killed a garage owner and tried to kill Smiley whom he seriously wounded. At the time, Dieter directed East German espionage against the United Kingdom.

26. Sauerburg (1984:51) suggests that Smiley’s survival "assures the reader that the missions are worth the sacrifices." In chapter 4, I demonstrate that le Carré is not as unambiguous as Sauerburg implies.

27. The novel is essentially about the closed world of the British "public" (private, in American usage) school and is a devastating critique of the class system. Le Carré writes about his own experiences as a "prisoner" of the public schools in "England Made Me" (1977: 25).

28. I discuss this novel, which vividly illustrates the theme that what appears to be reality is an illusion of human construction, in more detail in chapter 3. The same year as the publication of le Carré’s best-seller, Kim Philby was exposed as the third man in the infamous Cambridge spy ring for the Soviet Union.

29. Smiley mysteriously follows Leamas (8:79), pays the rent that Leamas owed after he has "defected" (11:115), and offers assistance to Liz (11:117-20), even giving her his calling card with his real name, address, and telephone number on it. This last clue positively confirms that he was not operational, because Smiley’s tradecraft was much too good to have done that if he had been with the Circus. Lewis (1985:71; emphasis added), whose chapter 2 is entitled "A Far from Saintly George," suggests that "Smiley, . . . has helped to engineer her [Liz’s] fate and must carry some of the responsibility for what happens to her." This would mean that Smiley was in on the operation all along. But, this would be completely out of character for Smiley and contrary to my understanding of le Carré’s intent which I elucidate in note 30.

30. "A second theme is that admirable actions, ideals, and intentions often lead to tragic consequences" (Douglas Wallace, 1985:6). Smiley, therefore, bears only indirect responsibility for their deaths.

31. John le Carré , "To Russia, with Greetings" (1966:5). See also chapter 5.

32. Most (1987:94) suggests that Control planted the false report that set the operation in motion. Bureaucratic politics, dramatically illustrated in this work as well as others, is another significant topic in le Carré’s work discussed in chapter 6.

33. In this novel, le Carré is particularly effective in portraying how all of the various characters participate in the creation of a delusional sense of reality that seals their fates. He also explores the need for belonging and approval that motivates each to participate in self-delusion and collective delusion (see chapter 3).

34. The theme of the relationship between loyalty and betrayal is discussed in more depth in chapter 2.

35. Brady (1985:276) suggests that Karla is modeled after Yuri Andropov, former head of the KGB. Others suggest that he is modeled after Markus Wolf, former head of East German external intelligence from 1952 (when he was 29) until 1983. Wolf retired in 1986.

36. "As it was, the next thing I knew I was talking about Ann. . . . Oh, not about my Ann. I assumed he had one" (207). "I could have sworn I was getting through to him, that I had found the chink in his armour; when of course all I was doing . . . was showing him the chink in mine" (209).

37. He tries the line of kinship: "Don’t you think it’s time to recognise that there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?" (211). "Did he not believe, for example, that the political generality was meaningless?" (212). But in the end, "He would rather die than disown the political system to which he was committed" (212).

38. This point is explored more fully in chapter 3.

39. Scholars interpret this passage differently. Sauerberg (1984:60) says that through Westerby’s perspective, Smiley appears as "a pompous man given to superficial and routine reflections on the justification of their common work." Lewis (1985:149) gives a fairly literal reading but emphasizes the need for commitment rather than the anticommunism theme. Homberger (1986:84-5) suggests that Smiley pitches his speech to appeal to his less sophisticated agent. Pointing out the contradiction between the Cold War tone of this speech and an earlier expression of Smiley’s attitude toward anticommunism, Homberger suggests that this expresses the moral ambiguity demanded by his profession rather than a shift in Smiley’s ideology.

40. Sauerberg (1984:125) notes that Smiley simultaneously plays the double roles of questing hero and superior. I disagree with his equating Jerry’s reaction to Smiley’s speech with Leamas’ reaction to Control’s speech in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Westerby was much more tolerant of Smiley, whom he affectionately considered a father figure. Leamas displays no such feelings for Control.

41. An explanation of this dilemma is elaborated in the conclusion of chapter 4.

42. I tend toward the latter interpretation. By "heroic," I mean more than the fact that he is the central character. To qualify as a hero, the person should be admirable for some significant quality, like moral courage. By quixotic (from Cervantes’ romance Don Quixote), I mean that the character combines attributes that are ridiculous and those that are admirable.

43. But she paradoxically suggests, "It is only Smiley’s increasing struggles and ultimate disenchantment that define him as a success" (Beene, 1992:26).

44. Monaghan (1986:165) supports Peter Guillam’s theory, expressed in the novel, that Smiley was aware of the plot against him and accepted it. Monaghan adds that Smiley felt it was just retribution for his having probably authorized the murder of his renegade agent Jerry Westerby. Other critics have ventured the opinion that Smiley ordered Westerby’s death. There is no question that he bears at least indirect responsibility (he was in charge of the operation), but le Carré is vague on this point. It is more likely that the assassin, a psychopath who bore a strong personal grudge against Westerby, acted on his own initiative. He could have operationally justified his action, because Westerby had drawn his weapon. Given Smiley’s acceptance of responsibility and his strong conscience, Monaghan’s explanation would hold even if Smiley had not given the order to shoot. Dobel (1988:207) suggests that Smiley’s hatred of "the interbureaucratic battles necessary to win money and turf for his policy" may have been an additional reason why "Smiley may actually have welcomed his replacement by Enderby" (see chapter 6).

45. "Smiley’s pure, patriotic zeal is simplified, and distorted, by his thirst for revenge" (Kanfer, 1987:9).

46. Shakespeare’s line when the queen says, "The lady protests too much, methinks" comes to mind (Hamlet, Act III, scene 2, line 219).

47. This anguished soul-searching makes Beene’s (1992:106) characterization of Smiley as an "absolutist" "impassively" watching Karla cross over difficult to comprehend.

48. Edwards (1988:51) suggests: "Holmes acquired much momentum from Conan Doyle’s enjoyment in writing chivalric romances of the fourteenth century, The White Company and Sir Nigel, and it is the science of chivalric symbolism that a knight may carry and fight to reclaim the token of his faithless lady, only quietly to discard it when the relevant quest is over."

49. When Enderby tells Smiley he would find it grating to have Karla keep a lighter given to him by his wife, Smiley replies: "It was just an ordinary Ronson. . . . Still, they’re made to last, aren’t they?" (277; emphasis added). The Ronson slogan also refers indirectly to marriage vows.

50. Rothberg (1987:62) gives an additional political interpretation of the scene: "If Smiley and Ann remain childless and thereby signal the end of their line, symbolically and literally the end of Britain’s might, the last of the glories of the past, then Karla’s daughter is a schizophrenic madwoman who proclaims what the Soviet state promises for the future." This evaluation is more pessimistic, however, than the more optimistic tone and open-ended conclusion of The Russia House.

51. Whereas this points to the common humanity of Smiley and Karla, McWilliams (1980:31) points out that it also highlights the difference between the political systems of the East and the West. "The Russians can be blackmailed because human weaknesses are not tolerated by the regime." It should be noted, however, that Westerners are not impervious to blackmail--especially for their sexual conduct (or misconduct).

52. By the phrase "combining Smiley’s halves," I take it that she means the balancing of thought and action (15). By "his termination," I surmise that she is referring to Smiley’s "spiritual death," when he adopts Karla’s absolutism (see, e.g., 5, 12). Beene (1992:115) also argues that "Smiley’s redemption arises from his relativism and perpetual doubt." She ignores the significance of Smiley’s appearance (spiritual resurrection) in The Secret Pilgrim.

53. He continues, "Smiley’s humanity corresponds to le Carré ‘s own."

54. Citing an interview with Byron Rogers (1982:90), he quotes le Carré: "This was to be Smiley’s confrontation with Karla that would destroy them both, Smiley by an act of professional absolutism, Karla by a lapse into humanity. It was to be a moral Reichenbach Falls with no happy moment when Smiley returns to bee-keeping."

55. Alec Guinness’ brilliant portrayal of Smiley in the BBC production of the television movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People was said by le Carré to have so inhabited the role as to have stolen Smiley from him. Alec Guinness "took the character away from me. . . . In a sense his screen success blew it for me" (Melvyn Bragg, 1983:22). He told Thom Schwartz (1987:20) that "Smiley became confined by Guinness. He became the property of Guinness. . . . Until then he’s in everybody’s imagination, and they find what they like. So I thought it was a good time to move on." Le Carré (1979:111), in "At Last, It’s Smiley," said "I found myself writing Guinness, not Smiley." For this and other reasons, Smiley does not appear in le Carré’s next three novels. Le Carré dedicated this book to "Alec Guinness with affection and thanks."

56. David Cornwell also has a home in Cornwall.

57. In a personal communication to me, November 27,1996.

58. Masters (1987:252), who does not quote le Carré’s revelation in his interview with Miriam Gross, comes to the same conclusion through convincing arguments and suggestive clues. Le Carré confirms this in his interview with Plimpton (1997:56).

59. In another interview le Carré said, "With time, I found him a damn nuisance. . . . I didn’t enjoy looking at life through the eyes of such an old and disenchanted person. I found the limitations of his sex life irritating" (Tom Mathews, 1989:57). In an interview with David Leitch (1987:50), le Carré says, "Smiley’s too old, not sexy enough, too inhibited, too predictable. There’s no danger any more." Indeed, the scenes depicting sex in the Smiley novels are conspicuous by their absence (especially for the spy genre). Even his post-Smiley novels are very sedate by the standards of the genre.

60. In anticipation of criticism for comparing a "popular" writer like le Carré with an "icon of high art" like Shakespeare, I call upon the authority of Marjorie Garber who is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at Harvard University. Garber reminds us that Shakespeare began publishing his plays in quartos, which were the "instant books" of their day. "It was only in the 18th century that the myth of ‘Shakespeare,’ and the Shakespeare text, began to be invented." See her Bookend essay, "Back to Whose Basics?" (1995:55).

61. My colleague Irving Louis Horowitz calls le Carré "both a sophisticate and a naïve" in a personal communication to me dated July 7, 1993. As his comment implies, one must resort to paradox in attempting to come to terms with le Carré. Le Carré teaches us that we must resort to paradox to understand ourselves and our world as well.

62. Alan Bold, in the Introduction to his edited volume The Quest for le Carré (1988:16), notes that the exchange of places between the two main characters (one of whom is modeled on the author) in The Naive and Sentimental Lover "implies that opposites not only attract: they interact." He notes that "Smiley and Karla, are two sides of the same coin even though one is burnished, the other tarnished." With le Carré, characters frequently have fragmented personalities, and they also merge as well as exchange roles.

63. John le Carré "Why I Came in from the Cold," 1989.

64. This apparently paradoxical statement written in nonfictional form is, I think, intended by le Carré to be taken literally. It means exactly what it says. In the present world political context, he feels that the kind of idealism he recommends is a most realistic stance. As I indicate below, his other oxymoronic statements may also be given a more literal reading; context determines how apparent opposites can be reconciled.

65. Le Carré "Tinpots, Saviors, Lawyers, Spies" (1993; emphasis added).

66. "Le Carré subverts the nationalistic, even jingoistic, assumptions underlying normal spy fiction to cast a questioning eye on the ethics of the Cold War and on the West’s overconfident beliefs that right must always be on its side and that its democratic hands are clean" (Lewis: 68).

67. From the perspective of Crechan (1988:106), this constitutes "ideological closure," a "reformist" approach, calling for "revitalizing" that takes for granted the need for spies. Although le Carré is extremely critical of them, Crechan is correct in his assessment that he never radically questions the continued existence of M16 or the CIA. This is because of his realism in recognizing that they are a necessary evil.

68. Barley (1986:94) suggests that Smiley reveals himself to be both "a principled liberal and humanist" and a "guilty liberal," which seems redundant. A liberal disposition inherently entails a certain degree of guilt.

69. He continues: "My books can be defined first by what I do not believe in; constancy, group values, obligations. I see in what I write a constant progress toward individual values and an anger that is growing more intense toward injustice."

70. Elie Wiesel (1976:24) observes, "All human dialogue is ambiguous. If Good always had the appearance of good and Evil could always be recognized, life would be simpler indeed. But it isn’t simple. Not even in paradise."

71. Barely (1986:25) suggests that "only being fully won over to espousing an alternative position can foreclose the issue, and that necessarily entails the complete rejection of liberalism and individualism."

72. "From his first appearance Smiley possesses a well-developed and comprehensive world view which commits him to the task of holding in balance forces that are essentially unreconcilable. Consequently, unless he completely alters his approach to experience, Smiley can never progress because he can never reach what he is striving towards. Rather than tracing development, then, Smiley’s various fictional appearances record a series of heroic but inevitably unsuccessful attempts to weld the differing circumstances with which he is faced into a harmonious whole."

73. For example, Andy East (1983:173) suggests that "le Carré slowly fused Smiley’s maturation process with the crises he faced in the Service." In fact, he calls the Smiley books a "psychological cycle."

74. "The only way for Smiley to reconcile ends with means is to distort the reality of the situation in which he is placed. And this he refuses to do, accepting instead the need to struggle painfully, knowing there is no hope of resolution, to come to terms with the moral implications of his acts. Smiley’s only reward for living so completely is that he remains intensely human" (David Monaghan, 1986:169).

75. For example, Gadi Becker in The Little Drummer Girl and Leonard Burr in The Night Manager (1993), manifest similar skeptical qualities and are the moral center of the novels in which they appear.