John Le Carré, The Quest for Karla

LynnDianne Beene (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Test Editor, Rheinisch-Westfalische TH
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1982

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Anthology/ Collection
Spy and Espionage

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

In 1982, John le Carré (pseudonym for John David Moore Cornwell) brought together three of his best-selling Cold War novels—

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

(1974),

The Honorable Schoolboy

(1977), and

Smiley’s People

(1979)—in an omnibus edition published as

The Quest for Karla

. In the novels, the sometimes reluctant but committed and honourable British spymaster, George Smiley, confronts his Soviet doppelgänger, Karla, as the two spymasters launch and thwart complicated operations designed to compromise the other’s intelligence agency and undermine the political values each spy espouses. Le Carré uses the ongoing confrontations between the two to explore his favorite ethical dilemmas including means versus ends, democratic versus socialist ideologies, political expediency versus…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2223 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Quest for Karla". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 October 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39422, accessed 27 December 2024.]

John Le Carré, The Quest for Karla

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback