Ashenden: Or the British Agent
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Ashenden or: the British Agent is a 1928 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the author's experience in the Russian Revolution of 1917.
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[edit] Plot summary
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A playwright called Ashenden is refused to join up at the start of World War One. He is also conducting an affair with a married woman. After a short-lived time driving ambulances, and with his plays failing or being banned for anti-Americanism, a dinner guest invites him to force the lover of Lahal, a German agent from India, to write him letters to entice him from neutral Switzerland to a waiting trap in France - if he is successful, he will be seconded to a new intelligence operation in Switzerland.
[edit] Chapters
1. R.
2. A Domiciliary Visit
3. Miss King
4. The Hairless Mexican
5. The Dark Woman
6. The Greek
7. A Trip to Paris
8. Giulia Lazzari
9. Gustav
10. The Traitor
11. Behind the Scenes
12. His Excellency
13. The Flip of a Coin
14. A Chance Acquaintance
15. Love and Russian Literature
16. Mr. Harrington's Washing
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
It is the archetype of the espionage novel, the book to which modern practitioners such as Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, John le Carré, Robert Ludlum, and Alan Furst are indebted for creation of the genre[citation needed]. An example of this is the device, which Fleming copied in the James Bond novels, of referring to the head of British Intelligence only by an initial.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The 1936 Alfred Hitchcock-directed film Secret Agent was a loose adaptation of The Traitor and The Hairless Mexican, with John Gielgud as Ashenden (whose "real" name is Edgar Brodie), and Peter Lorre as The General.
A number of the stories formed the basis of the 1991 4-part BBC1 series Ashenden, with Alex Jennings in the title role, Joss Ackland as Cumming and Ian Bannen as 'R'. Guest actors included Harriet Walter as Giuliav Lazzari in the first episode, and Alan Bennett as Grantly Caypor in the second.
- The Dark Woman (1 February 1991)
- The Traitor (8 February 1991)
- Mr Harrington's Washing (15 February 1991)
- The Hairless Mexican (22 February 1991)
