The Karla Trilogy

John le Carré's novels transcend the spy genre, ranking among the most critically acclaimed fiction of the late 20th century. Unsurpassed examinations of the ambiguities and moral evasions of the Cold War, these tense, brilliant novels in The Karla Trilogy are defining masterpieces of the genre.

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

‘Mr George Smiley was not naturally equipped for hurrying in the rain … Small, podgy and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth… For reasons of vanity he wore no hat, believing rightly that hats made him ridiculous.’

George Smiley looks nothing like a spy. But in his day, he was right-hand man to ‘Control’, head of the ‘Circus’ – codeword for British Intelligence. Forced into early retirement, Smiley is prepared for a quiet life of academic obscurity, until the long arm of the Circus pulls him back into the game. One of the highest-ranking officials in the Service is a Russian mole implanted decades ago, and Smiley’s mission is to identify the traitor. In the chess game of wits that follows, he comes face to face with old enemies, unsolved mysteries and his own past.

Like Graham Greene, John le Carré transcends the spy genre, writing novels that also rank among the most critically acclaimed fiction of the late 20th century. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he perfectly evokes the Cold War, a conflict that has a language all of its own: in the jargon of espionage we encounter ‘scalphunters’ and ‘pavement artists’, ‘firemen’ and ‘lamplighters’, as loyalties shift and the rivalry intensifies between the Circus and its counterpart in Washington. This is no one-dimensional thriller, but a subtle, gripping novel that derives suspense from moral complexity and psychological subtlety. Its spies are individuals caught in a web of international intrigue, from Smiley himself, recalling his days as an agent ‘living with terror in his mouth, naked to every stranger’s glance’, to a supply teacher in a West Country prep school, ‘obeying orders and forgetting’ – both human casualties of a dangerous profession.

First published in 1974, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stands out as one of the finest espionage novels ever written, memorably adapted by the BBC to international acclaim. This Folio Society edition is illustrated by Tim Laing, whose atmospheric pencil drawings brilliantly portray le Carré’s shadowy world.

The Honourable Schoolboy

With a handful of faithful agents, Smiley begins the painful process of reconstructing some kind of intelligence operation that has not been betrayed to Moscow – ‘backbearings’, as the ageing and partially crippled Connie Sachs puts it. What did Karla want information on? What did he want suppressed? It is a trail that leads east, to Cambodia and Laos where the Vietnam War is reaching its predictable, bloody finish; to opium smugglers and Triad gangs in Hong Kong – and to the Honourable Gerald Westerby. Jerry is a journalist and old Eastern hand, both lover and fighter, and a reckless secret agent whom Smiley thinks might find the clue. Smiley knows he is on the track of Karla, but neither tradecraft nor intelligence are the most important skills for negotiating the corridors of Whitehall, and the true enemy is not always on the other side.

John le Carré famously worked for the British Foreign Service himself and wrote his first three novels while a spy. During the 50s and 60s revelations about the ‘Cambridge Five’ KGB agents had shocked the country and shaken the security services. In his ‘Karla Trilogy’, le Carré created a perfectly nuanced exploration of treachery and moral ambiguity that made the novels not only thrilling espionage stories, but also works of literature that repay reading again and again.

Smiley's People

An exiled Estonian general calls the Circus insisting he has desperately important information on ‘the Sandman’, a codename for Karla. He arranges a meeting –‘Moscow Rules’ – and in keeping the appointment, he is shot. George Smiley is brought back from retirement to tidy away any loose ends and avoid a scandal. But Smiley believes in the old General’s claims and soon he is investigating in earnest, despite all the obstructions that the Circus, the Americans and, of course, Karla can put in his way. It is, as Smiley knows, ‘a chance to return to the rained-off contests of his life and play them after all’. And yet, in this world of half-truths and questionable motives, Smiley’s connection with Karla seems to grow closer as he approaches his goal.

At the same time as the fantasy of James Bond was popular in Hollywood, le Carré’s ambivalent, painfully realistic novels became a literary success. The books expose the divisions between Britain and its ally, America and the obvious decline of British power; more, they point to an increasing moral equivalence between the West and Russia, and the corruption of both their ideals. Le Carré’s vision is seldom comforting, often bleak, but it is powerful and expressed in terse, beautifully balanced prose that is in itself sufficient to explain why this trilogy is so acclaimed. Never glamorous, Smiley is nonetheless the archetype of what a spymaster should be, and in these tense, brilliant books, le Carré has written the defining masterpieces of the spy genre.