W. Somerset Maugham, Ashenden: or The British Agent

Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Mar 1928

Places

England (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Spy and Espionage
Story Collection

Resources

Ashenden: or The British Agent (1928) is a collection of linked stories by W. Somerset Maugham, based upon his experiences of wartime espionage in Switzerland (1915-16) and in Russia (1917). It is not Maugham’s best volume of short stories, but it is significant as a landmark of modern spy fiction, displacing the high drama of the adventure-thriller school (E. Phillips Oppenheim, John Buchan) with cooler intelligence, in both senses. The ironic realism with which Maugham presents the unglamorous routines of intelligence in Ashenden laid the foundations for a new realistic tradition in espionage fiction developed by Graham Greene, Len Deighton and John Le Carré. The stories are also notable for the first …

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1928 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Ashenden: or The British Agent". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 May 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11450, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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