Smiley's People
First edition
|
|
| Author | John le Carré |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Stephen Cornwell |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | George Smiley/The Quest for Karla |
| Genre | Spy novel |
| Publisher |
Hodder & Stoughton (UK) Random House (USA) |
|
Publication date
|
November 1979 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 384 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (UK hardback edition) & (US hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 6102346 |
| Preceded by | The Honourable Schoolboy |
| Followed by | The Little Drummer Girl |
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy. George Smiley is called out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his old agents: a former Soviet general, the head of an Estonian émigré organisation based in London. Smiley learns the general had discovered information that will lead to a final confrontation with Smiley's nemesis, the Soviet spymaster Karla.
The character General Vladimir was partly modelled on Colonel Alfons Rebane, an Estonian émigré who led the Estonian portion of SIS's Operation Jungle in the 1950s. David Cornwell (John le Carré) worked as an intelligence officer for both MI5 and the SIS (MI6).
Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova, a Soviet émigrée in Paris, is told by a Soviet agent calling himself "Kursky" that her daughter Alexandra, whom she was forced to leave behind, may be permitted to join her for "humanitarian reasons". Maria eagerly applies for French citizenship for her daughter, but time passes with no sign of Alexandra and no further contact with "Kursky". Realising she has been duped, Maria writes to General Vladimir, a former Soviet general and British agent, for help. Vladimir immediately realises that Maria was unwittingly used to provide a "legend", or false identity, for an unknown young woman, a ploy which KGB spymaster Karla has fruitlessly tried before. Vladimir also recognises that the operation is wholly unofficial, because Karla uses blundering amateur agents instead of trained intelligence officers.
...
Wikipedia