| The Looking Glass War | |
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1st edition |
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| Author(s) | John le Carré |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | William Heinemann (UK) & Putnam (USA) |
| Publication date | June 1965 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Cassette |
| Pages | 246 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-434-41200-7 (UK hardback edition) ISBN 0-698-10218-5 (US hardback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 257344327 |
| Preceded by | The Spy Who Came in from the Cold |
| Followed by | A Small Town in Germany |
The Looking Glass War (1965), by John le Carré, is a spy novel about a British Intelligence agency known as 'The Department' and its attempts to infiltrate an agent into East Germany.
Contents |
John le Carré has stated that this novel is his most realistic portrayal of the intelligence world as he knew it and that may have been one reason for its relative lack of success. Le Carré's most famous character, George Smiley, appears in the book, but only in a supporting role.
An undefined military Intelligence organisation, based in Blackfriars Road, London and named throughout the book as "The Department" had much success running agents against the Nazis during the Second World War but has been resting on its laurels since, with such tasks being taken on by the more favoured and experienced Circus, led by "Control" and his right hand man George Smiley. The Department expends most of its energies on administrative tasks and on a bureaucratic turf war with the more professional Circus.
After The Department comes across rather uncertain and weak evidence that Soviet missiles were being placed near Rostock, near the West German border, the head of the Department, LeClerc, seizes the opportunity to re-live old times, and decides to send an agent across the border to discover the truth without involving the Circus, and thereby enhancing the Department's status. The Department reactivates one of its World War II agents, a naturalised Pole called Fred Leiser. Leiser is retrained and infiltrated across the border into East Germany to investigate the missiles.
However, the clumsiness of the inexperienced Department's operation, coupled with errors on the part of Leiser (including his killing a young East German border guard and taking far too long over transmissions), lead the East Germans to determine almost immediately that security had been breached and set out to find Leiser's location. As a result, Circus agent George Smiley informs LeClerc and his colleagues about the killing of the East German sentry and that the East German Security were looking for Leiser. He tactfully convinces LeClerc to abandon this operation, with Leiser still trapped in East Germany.
The story comes to its tragic but inevitable end when Leiser, not knowing the fate of the operation, continues with his mission and as a consequence of Smiley's intervention, receives no response to his transmissions. He follows the "War Rules" and plays out the losing game to the end, and due to his prolonged and slow transmissions, East German security forces determine his location and capture him. Leiser's fate is unknown at the conclusion of the story.
A film of the novel was released in 1969, starring Christopher Jones as Leiser, Ralph Richardson as LeClerc, and Anthony Hopkins as Avery. It was directed by Frank Pierson.[1]
As part of a series of dramatisation of Le Carre's work, the "Complete Smiley" series, BBC Radio produced a radio play of The Looking Glass War in 2009. Broadcast on Radio4, it starred Ian McDiarmid as LeClerc, Piotr Baumann as Leiser, Patrick Kennedy as Avery, and Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley.[2] As with other plays in this series it is now also available as a CD set as ISBN 978-1408400869.
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