Overview

Espionage in British Fiction and Film Since 1900 traces the history and development of the British spy novel from its emergence in the early twentieth century, through its growth as a popular genre during the Cold War, to its resurgence in the early twenty-first century. Using an innovative structure, the chapters focus on specific categories of fictional spying (such as the accidental spy or the professional) and identify each type with a vital period in the evolution of the spy novel and film. A central section of the book considers how, with the creation of James Bond by Ian Fleming in the 1950s, the professional spy was launched on a new career of global popularity, enhanced by the Bond film franchise. In the realm of fiction, a glance at the fiction bestseller list will reveal the continuing appeal of novelists such as John le Carré, Frederick Forsyth, Charles Cumming, Stella Rimington, Daniel Silva, Alec Berenson, Christopher Reich—to name but a few—and illustrates the continued fascination with the spy novel into the twenty-first century, decades after the end of the Cold War. There is also a burgeoning critical interest in spy fiction, with a number of new studies appearing in recent years. A genre that many believed would falter and disappear after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire has shown, if anything, increased signs of vitality. While exploring the origins of the British spy, tracing it through cultural and historical events, Espionage in British Fiction and Film Since 1900 also keeps in focus the essential role of the “changing enemy”—the chief adversary of and threat to Britain and its allies—in the evolution of spy fiction and cinema. The book concludes by analyzing examples of the enduring vitality of the British spy novel and film in the decades since the end of the Cold War.

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9781498504829

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Reviews

Buckton has written a comprehensive historical and thematic study of the rise and development of what he terms 'spy fiction.' As he points out in the introduction, such fictions have always responded to temporal political and cultural currents and have 'consistently played a role in imagining, describing, elaborating, and indeed defining the identity of the 'other'-the foremost 'enemy' and national rival'... Buckton considers nearly all the most celebrated authors of the genre-Joseph Conrad, William Le Queux, Eric Ambler, John Buchan, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, John le Carre, and Stella Rimington, to name just a few. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Carol Reed are also discussed. The book's nine chapters chart the development of the amateur spy, the professional operative, the Cold War warriors, and the Soviet threat and fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the most provocative chapters is the last, 'Reinventing the Spy Story after the Cold War,' in which Buckton considers the absence of specific enemy states and the increased reliance on faceless technology to gather information and exact retribution. The book is thoroughly researched, well written, and judicious in its assessments. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. CHOICE

Buckton has written a comprehensive historical and thematic study of the rise and development of what he terms 'spy fiction.' As he points out in the introduction, such fictions have always responded to temporal political and cultural currents and have 'consistently played a role in imagining, describing, elaborating, and indeed defining the identity of the ‘other’—the foremost ‘enemy’ and national rival'.... Buckton considers nearly all the most celebrated authors of the genre—Joseph Conrad, William Le Queux, Eric Ambler, John Buchan, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, John le Carré, and Stella Rimington, to name just a few. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Carol Reed are also discussed. The book's nine chapters chart the development of the amateur spy, the professional operative, the Cold War warriors, and the Soviet threat and fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the most provocative chapters is the last, 'Reinventing the Spy Story after the Cold War,' in which Buckton considers the absence of specific enemy states and the increased reliance on faceless technology to gather information and exact retribution. The book is thoroughly researched, well written, and judicious in its assessments. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. * CHOICE * Oliver S. Buckton’s Espionage in British Fiction and Film since 1900 is an ambitious and comprehensive analysis of the most significant spy novels and movies of the last century. . . . Buckton and Lassner [author of Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film] each make important contributions to our understanding of how spy fiction not only depicts the “enemy” but also productively intervenes in political discourse. . . If spy fiction in the post-Cold War era has, as Buckton discusses at the end of his book, evolved to take on the threat posed by international terrorism, perhaps its future lies in its potential to counter the menace of a resurgent authoritarianism at home. * Twentieth-Century Literature *

Buckton has written a comprehensive historical and thematic study of the rise and development of what he terms 'spy fiction.' As he points out in the introduction, such fictions have always responded to temporal political and cultural currents and have 'consistently played a role in imagining, describing, elaborating, and indeed defining the identity of the `other'-the foremost `enemy' and national rival'.... Buckton considers nearly all the most celebrated authors of the genre-Joseph Conrad, William Le Queux, Eric Ambler, John Buchan, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, John le Carre, and Stella Rimington, to name just a few. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Carol Reed are also discussed. The book's nine chapters chart the development of the amateur spy, the professional operative, the Cold War warriors, and the Soviet threat and fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the most provocative chapters is the last, 'Reinventing the Spy Story after the Cold War,' in which Buckton considers the absence of specific enemy states and the increased reliance on faceless technology to gather information and exact retribution. The book is thoroughly researched, well written, and judicious in its assessments. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. * CHOICE * Oliver S. Buckton's Espionage in British Fiction and Film since 1900 is an ambitious and comprehensive analysis of the most significant spy novels and movies of the last century. . . . Buckton and Lassner [author of Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film] each make important contributions to our understanding of how spy fiction not only depicts the enemy but also productively intervenes in political discourse. . . If spy fiction in the post-Cold War era has, as Buckton discusses at the end of his book, evolved to take on the threat posed by international terrorism, perhaps its future lies in its potential to counter the menace of a resurgent authoritarianism at home. * Twentieth-Century Literature *

Buckton has written a comprehensive historical and thematic study of the rise and development of what he terms 'spy fiction.' As he points out in the introduction, such fictions have always responded to temporal political and cultural currents and have 'consistently played a role in imagining, describing, elaborating, and indeed defining the identity of the `other'-the foremost `enemy' and national rival'.... Buckton considers nearly all the most celebrated authors of the genre-Joseph Conrad, William Le Queux, Eric Ambler, John Buchan, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, John le Carre, and Stella Rimington, to name just a few. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Carol Reed are also discussed. The book's nine chapters chart the development of the amateur spy, the professional operative, the Cold War warriors, and the Soviet threat and fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the most provocative chapters is the last, 'Reinventing the Spy Story after the Cold War,' in which Buckton considers the absence of specific enemy states and the increased reliance on faceless technology to gather information and exact retribution. The book is thoroughly researched, well written, and judicious in its assessments. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. * CHOICE *

Author Information

Oliver S. Buckton is professor of English at Florida Atlantic University.

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