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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)

by John le Carré

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Karla Trilogy (1), George Smiley (5)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
8,4012311,009 (4.05)1 / 503
British agent George Smiley hunts for a mole in the Secret Service and begins his epic game of international chess with his Soviet counterpart, an agent named Karla.
  1. 30
    The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (longway)
  2. 21
    The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carré (John_Vaughan)
    John_Vaughan: Setting the oeuvre.
  3. 10
    Game, Set & Match trilogy by Len Deighton (John_Vaughan)
    John_Vaughan: Another great trilogy.
  4. 10
    A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré (dajashby)
  5. 10
    Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean (themulhern)
  6. 11
    The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth (John_Vaughan)
    John_Vaughan: More perfect atmosphere.
  7. 00
    The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (tandah)
    tandah: A different era, but similar pacing and sense of foreboding.
  8. 00
    Declare by Tim Powers (LamontCranston)
  9. 12
    The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (wvlibrarydude)
  10. 27
    Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy (Hedgepeth)
    Hedgepeth: Red Rabbit is any early case in Jack Ryans career that is not as action driven as some of the other novels. It moves a little faster than Tinker, Tailor but should still appeal to those who appreciate a more methodical pace.
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Group TopicMessagesLast Message 
 Folio Society Devotees: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy LE??!12 unread / 12Fortinbras1601, October 2023

» See also 503 mentions

English (216)  Spanish (3)  French (3)  Dutch (2)  Hebrew (1)  Danish (1)  Swedish (1)  German (1)  All languages (228)
Showing 1-5 of 216 (next | show all)
cold war spy fiction (1974) set in UK, London. I guess this is supposed to be suspenseful (as in which of these spies is the mole? Trust no one!) but I feel like it's kind of pointless to keep talking to the rest of the spy network (who can't give straight answers anyway) when you could just talk to Jim Prideau.

lots of coded spy dialogue (which I found confusing, which I guess is the point?) and men being arrogant and acting superior, but otherwise interesting atmospheric prose descriptions of mood/place, whenever actual story is allowed to take place. This is not a plot-driven novel so much as a confusing whodunnit where you can't really trust anyone to tell the truth and every piece of the mystery takes pages of oblique dialogue to uncover. You'd have to be really into the genre to enjoy it, I think.

picked up from Little Free Library, author I've not read before, 2024 reading challenge: book to movie/adapted for screen. ( )
  reader1009 | Feb 20, 2024 |
I've been meaning to read this for years and I'm so glad I finally picked it up. What great characters! I have to read the entire Karla trilogy now, I just can't face not having Smiley in my life for a little longer. ( )
  dhenn31 | Jan 24, 2024 |
I rated this book a "3" only because it is a little hard to follow since it is written by a British author and I am not as familiar with some of the colloquisms and spy jargon. It was a good story and I would like to see the movie. ( )
  LuLibro | Jan 22, 2024 |
Too complicated; too many characters; good writing with a lot of British jargon. Bill Haydon was the mole. ( )
  JosephKing6602 | Dec 21, 2023 |
What a cracking read! A really engrossing plot, and George Smiley is such a great character. I like the way that Le Carré tosses in little details or bits of argot that you're not really sure if you should know or not, and let them develop or not. It keeps you slightly off-balance in a way that feels highly appropriate here.

The plot is deceptively simple - I often felt that not much was happening, or things were being advanced by exposition, but actually it's all constructed beautifully. It doesn't have the same squalid feeling as the last couple of Smiley novels, and I actually missed that a little. I guess you could grumble that one or two of the other lead characters could have been better defined, but I think Le Carré likes to keep his novels sparse where possible. Worried about the film now - everyone seems too young and good looking. Ah well.

( )
  thisisstephenbetts | Nov 25, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 216 (next | show all)
10 of the Greatest Cold War Spy Novels
“Like Fleming, Le Carré (real name: David John Moore Cornwall) worked for British intelligence. But where Fleming used his WW 2 experiences as a springboard for fantasy, Le Carre turned his Cold War service into grimly realistic novels. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) trumped Deighton as a response to James Bond’s glamourous world of espionage, and he continues to turn out fine work to this day. Tinker charts the search for a Soviet mole in the upper echelons of British intelligence, providing Le Carré’s signature character – the low-key professional George Smiley – with a late-in-the-game chance to reclaim his standing in the Circus (MI6), made bittersweet by betrayal. A fine BBC serialization in 1974 was followed by an equally well-received feature-film version in 2011.”
 
Karla is finally lured across a Berlin bridge and into the West. But, again, what figure is cut by the evil mastermind when he appears? “He wore a grimy shirt and a black tie: he looked like a poor man going to the funeral of a friend.” Le Carré has never written a better sentence, one so impatient of ideology and so attentive to what he, following W. H. Auden, describes plainly as “the human situation.” The television series of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” has lost none of its grip, and the new film will recruit new friends to the cause; but if we seek George Smiley and his people, with their full complement of terrors, illusions, and shames, we should follow the example of the ever-retiring Smiley, and go back to our books. That’s the truth
added by John_Vaughan | editNew Yorker, Anthony Lane (Dec 14, 2011)
 
The power of the novel is that le Carré transfigured espionage – its techniques, failures and deceptions – into a rich metaphor combining national decay, the disintegration of certainties with advancing age, the impossibility of knowing another human being's mind, the fragility of all trust and loyalty.
added by thorold | editThe Observer, Neal Ascherson (Sep 11, 2011)
 
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is fluently written; it is full of vivid character sketches of secret agents and bureaucrats from all levels of British society , and the dialogue catches their voices well. The social and physical details of English life and the day to day activities of the intelligence service at home and abroad are convincing. Unlike many writers Le Carré is at his best showing men hard at work; he is fascinated by the office politics of the agency since the war.
added by John_Vaughan | editNY Times, Richard Locke (Jul 20, 1974)
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
le Carré, Johnprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Davidson, FrederickNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Greenburger, FrancescoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jayston, MichaelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Laing, TimIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mänttäri, EeroTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Soellner, HeddaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Soellner, RolfTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Taylor, MattCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Woolfitt, AdamCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Tinker,
Tailor,
Soldier,
Sailor,
Rich Man,
Poor Man,
Beggarman,
Thief.

Small children's fortune-telling rhyme used when counting cherry stones, waistcoat buttons, daisy petals, or the seeds of the Timothy grass.
– from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
Dedication
For James Bennett and Dusty Rhodes in memory.
First words
The truth is, if old Major Dover hadn't dropped dead at Taunton races Jim would never have come to Thursgood's at all.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

British agent George Smiley hunts for a mole in the Secret Service and begins his epic game of international chess with his Soviet counterpart, an agent named Karla.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary
Is he friend or foe?
Spying is no nurs'ry rhyme
Control suspects all
(pickupsticks)
Smiley and Control
Team up to capture the mole
Deep must they burrow
(pickupsticks)

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