The Looking Glass War
First-edition cover
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| Author | John le Carré |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Series | George Smiley |
| Genre | Spy novel |
| Publisher | William Heinemann (UK) & Putnam (USA) |
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Publication date
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June 1965 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 246 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Spy Who Came in from the Cold |
| Followed by | A Small Town in Germany |
The Looking Glass War is a 1965 spy novel by John le Carré about a British intelligence agency known as the Department and its attempts to infiltrate an agent into East Germany.
During the early 1960s, a British military intelligence organisation based in Blackfriars Road, London and referred to as "The Department," has been largely inactive since successfully running agents against the Nazis during the Second World War. Its rival is the more experienced and professional "Circus" led by "Control" and George Smiley.
The Department interprets intelligence from a source as evidence that Soviet missiles are being placed at , near the West German border. The Department's chief, Leclerc, sees it as an opportunity to re-live glory days and regain ground in its turf war with The Circus. To get aerial photographs, The Department pays a civilian pilot to "accidentally" divert his flight over the area. The man sent to collect the film is killed, and the film is lost. Further blunders are made when Leclerc's assistant, Avery, tries to retrieve the body in the hope that the film is still among his effects. When Leclerc requests assistance, Smiley and the Circus are alerted to the The Department's new covert activities.
In spite of these compromising setbacks, The Department persuades the responsible Minister to allow them to send an agent into East Germany to discover the truth. Leclerc avoids involving The Circus directly, representing the whole operation as a training exercise. The Department reactivates one of its wartime agents, a middle-aged naturalised Pole named Fred Leiser. During his preparation and training, his handlers have Leiser believe that The Department is still the large, vital and competent organisation he remembers from the war years, hiding from him that he is now their only agent, and that his equipment, supplied by The Circus, is obsolete.
When crossing the border, Leiser kills a young East German guard, an outrage which is widely published in the East German media as the work of Western "provocateurs". Leiser meets a young German girl and makes radio transmissions from a hotel, forgetting to change frequencies. The East Germans are aware that security has been breached, and set about locating Leiser. After informing Leclerc and his colleagues about the debacle, Smiley tactfully convinces Leclerc to abandon the operation, and to leave Leiser trapped in East Germany, explaining that his obsolete equipment and techniques will make denials more plausible. Receiving no response to his further radio transmissions from the East German woman's flat, Leiser continues with his mission, following the "War Rules". He is located, captured; his ultimate destiny not told.
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