Ashenden: Or the British Agent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ashenden" redirects here. For the British railway junction, see Ashenden Junction.

Ashenden or: the British Agent is a 1928 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the author's experience as a member of British Intelligence in Europe during World War I.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

A playwright called Ashenden refuses to enlist at the start of World War I.[citation needed] He is also conducting an affair with a married woman. After a short-lived time driving ambulances, and with his plays failing or being banned for anti-Americanism, a dinner guest invites him to force the lover of Chandra Lal, a German agent from India, to write him letters to entice him from neutral Switzerland to a waiting trap in France. if he is successful, he will be seconded to a new intelligence operation in Switzerland.

[edit] Chapters

  1. R.
  2. A Domiciliary Visit
  3. Miss King
  4. The Hairless Mexican
  5. The Dark Woman
  6. The Greek
  7. A Trip to Paris
  8. Giulia Lazzari
  9. Gustav
  10. The Traitor
  11. Behind the Scenes
  12. His Excellency
  13. The Flip of a Coin
  14. A Chance Acquaintance
  15. Love and Russian Literature
  16. Mr. Harrington's Washing

[edit] Origins

It is said that Somerset Maugham, modelled the character of John Ashenden after himself and Chandra Lal after Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, an Indian Nationalist in Germany during the war. Maugham, who was in the British Secret Service in Europe during the war, based a number of his stories on his own experiences. Among other enterprises, Britain's European intelligence network attempted to eliminate a number of Indian nationalists in Europe, notably members of the Berlin Committee. Donald Gullick, a British agent, was dispatched to assassinate Virendranath Chattopadhaya while the latter was on his way to Geneva to meet another Indian nationalist, Mahendra Pratap and forward the Kaiser's invitation to Berlin. The short story of Giulia Lazzari is a blend of Gullick's attempts to assassinate Virendranath and Mata Hari's story. Winston Churchill reportedly advised Maugham to burn 14 other stories.[1][2]

[edit] Literary significance & criticism

It is the archetype of the espionage novel, the book to which modern practitioners such as Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, John le Carré, Robert Ludlum, and Alan Furst are indebted for creation of the genre[citation needed]. An example of this is the device, which Fleming copied in the James Bond novels, of referring to the head of British Intelligence only by an initial.

[edit] Film and TV adaptations

The 1936 Alfred Hitchcock-directed film Secret Agent was a loose adaptation of "The Traitor" and "The Hairless Mexican", with John Gielgud as Ashenden (whose "real" name is Edgar Brodie), and Peter Lorre as The General.

A number of the stories formed the basis of the 1991 four-part BBC1 series Ashenden, directed by Christopher Morahan, with Alex Jennings in the title role, Joss Ackland as Cumming and Ian Bannen as 'R'.

Guest actors included Harriet Walter as Giuliav Lazzari in the first episode, and Alan Bennett as Grantly Caypor in the second.

[edit] Other Appearances

The character appears briefly in the book The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 234
  2. ^ Barooah 2004