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Smiley's People
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | John le Carré |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Karla Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) & Random House (USA) |
| Released | November 1979 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 384 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-340-24704-5 (UK hardback edition) & ISBN 0-394-50843-2 (US hardback edition) |
| Preceded by | The Honourable Schoolboy |
- For the article by Neal Stephenson, see Smiley's people.
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. It is the third novel of the Karla Trilogy, featuring British master-spy George Smiley, following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy.
Contents |
George Smiley is called out from retirement, a final time, to investigate the death of an old British agent, a Russian General anonymously living in retirement in London. Smiley learns the General had discovered information that would lead to a final confrontation with George Smiley's 'Black Grail', the Soviet spy-master Karla.
Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova, a Russian émigrée in Paris, is persuaded by a Soviet agent (whom we later identify as Oleg Kirov né Kursky) that her daughter, left long ago in the Soviet Union, will be permitted to emigrate and join Ostrakova. Too much time passes after completing the formalities, with no sign of the daughter. Ostrakova realises she has been used, and contacts General Vladimir. Vladimir arranges some investigation, with help from his friend Otto Leipzig and another friend's son, Villem aka William Craven, and learns that Ostrakova has unwittingly provided a "legend," i.e. a false identity, for Karla's daughter. Vladimir attempts to pass this on to British intelligence, but the Circus (its London headquarters) is skeptical and uncooperative, and Vladimir is assassinated, evidently by a Moscow agent. The Circus wants only to protect itself from scandal, and calls in George Smiley to help clean up. Smiley, unlike anyone in authority at the Circus, believes Vladimir possessed valuable intelligence, and takes it upon himself to investigate.
Soviet agents blunder an attempt to kill Ostrakova. She, recognizing that she is in danger, has already sent another letter to Vladimir.
Smiley retrieves a negative hidden by Vladimir just before his death. A photo developed from the negative shows Kirov and Leipzig, nearly naked, with a pair of naked prostitutes entwined. Smiley also intercepts the second letter from Ostrakova to Vladimir. He consults with Connie Sachs and flies to Hamburg, where he hopes to find Leipzig and learn the rest of the story.
In Hamburg, Smiley tracks down Claus Kretzschmar, old friend of Leipzig and owner of the night club where the photograph was taken. Kretzschmar gives him directions to find Leipzig. But the Soviets found Leipzig first, and tortured and killed him. They also searched fruitlessly for the torn half of a postcard which Smiley finds, hidden underwater in an old shoe. Smiley's discovery is witnessed by too many people, and his rental car is severely damaged in the process, so Smiley finds himself in a rush to finish his work in Hamburg before the German authorities and Soviet thugs close in on him. He takes the postcard to Kretzschmar, who matches it to the other half and gives Smiley the tape recording of Leipzig and Kirov's night at the night club, and the photocopy of Ostrakova's first letter, which Vladimir had sent to Leipzig. Smiley reads the letter and flies to Paris, fearing for Ostrakova's life.
Smiley gets Ostrakova to a safe place, and gets (deniable) approval, and funding, from Enderby (Circus chief) to lead an operation to cause Karla to defect. While Smiley does research at Circus, Toby Esterhase sets up a team in Berne, Switzerland, where Soviet official Grigoriev resides. (Kirov revealed on Leipzig's tape recording that US $10,000 was secretly sent to Grigoriev every month, so Smiley expects Grigoriev to lead him to Karla's "Alexandra".) Grigoriev is subjected to the classic blackmail-and-bribe technique, to extract from him all he knows of the Alexandra arrangement, and to get him to arrange for Smiley to visit Alexandra. Following Smiley's visit to Alexandra, Grigoriev passes on Smiley's letter to Karla. Karla, faced with a choice between defection and the destruction, not only of himself but likely of Alexandra, crosses a walkbridge at the Berlin Wall, to Smiley's waiting car. Finally, Smiley has defeated Karla.
Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova - a Russian émigrée in Paris, mother of a girl, Alexandra Glikman, whom she left with the girl's father when she escaped from the Soviet Union
Oleg Kirov né Oleg Kursky - an agent for Karla, deputed to find a suitable legend for Karla's daughter
General Vladimir - Estonian, former Soviet general, spied for the British for three years, since defected and later retired
Otto Leipzig - free-lance intelligence agent and occasional fraud, who works with Vladimir to take down Kirov and Karla
George Smiley - retired, former Acting Chief of British intelligence
Connie Sachs - retired, former head of Moscow sphere of British intelligence
Oliver Lacon - Whitehall's Head Prefect to the intelligence service, aka Cabinet Office factotum
Nigel Mostyn - young intelligence officer who took Vladimir's calls to Circus
Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova - Maria Andreyevna's daughter; identity assumed by Karla's daughter
Karla - Chief of Soviet intelligence
Saul Enderby - Chief of British intelligence
William (Villem) Craven - son of a deceased friend of Vladimir, performs a courier job for Vladimir
Mikhel - Vladimir's friend at the Free Baltic library in Bloomsbury
Elvira - Mikhel's wife, probably Vladimir's lover
Toby Esterhase - former Circus man, organizes the trapping of Grigoriev
Claus Kretzschmar - owner of night club in Hamburg where Kirov is burned
Grigoriev - Soviet bureaucrat in Berne who is drawn against his will into, first, Karla's services, then Smiley's
Krassky - Moscow courier who handles correspondence between Grigoriev and Karla
Tatiana - Karla's daughter, usually referred to by her assumed identity, "Alexandra"
Mother Felicity - chief of the facility in Thun where Alexandra/Tatiana is kept
Smiley's People, was dramatised by John Hopkins as a television mini-series for the BBC in 1982, as a sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979), again starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley.
- George Smiley - (Alec Guinness)
- Madame Ostrakova - (Eileen Atkins)
- Peter Guillam - (Michael Byrne)
- Toby Esterhase - (Bernard Hepton)
- Oliver Lacon - (Anthony Bate)
- Saul Enderby - (Barry Foster)
- Anton Grigoriev - (Michael Lonsdale)
- Connie Sachs - (Beryl Reid)
- Lauder Strickland - (Bill Paterson)
- Ann Smiley - (Sian Phillips)
- Claus Kretschmar - (Mario Adorf)
- Karla - (Patrick Stewart)
- The General - (Curd Jürgens)
- Otto Leipzig - (Vladek Sheybal)
- Mother Felicity - (Rosalie Crutchley)
- Stella Craven - (Maureen Lipman)
- Oleg Kirov - (Dudley Sutton)
- Mikhel - (Michael Gough)
- Detective Chief Superintendent - (Michael Elphick)
- Villem Craven - (Paul Herzberg)
- Nigel Mostyn - (Stephen Riddle)
- Alexandra - (Tusse Silberg)
- Hilary - (Norma West)
- Elvira - (Ingrid Pitt)
- Molly Meakin - (Lucy Fleming)
- Ferguson - (Andy Bradford)
- Mr. Brownlow - (Alan Rickman)