Reading Espionage Fiction: Narrative, Conflict and Commitment from World War I to the Contemporary Era probes the ways in which the struggles and loyalties of political modernity have been portrayed in the espionage story over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Reading works by authors such as Somerset Maugham, Helen MacInnes, John le Carré, Sam E. Greenlee and Gerald Seymour as popular literature deserving of sustained attention, this book shows how these narratives have both created a modern genre and, at the same time, sought an escape from its limitations. Martin Griffin takes up the importance of plot and character and argues that, in this branch of fiction, the personal has always and ever been political.
| ISBN: | 9781399520805 |
| Publication date: | 31st January 2026 |
| Author: | Martin Griffin |
| Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 200 pages |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 |
Reading Espionage Fiction: Narrative, Conflict and Commitment from World War I to the Contemporary Era probes the ways in which the struggles and loyalties of political modernity have been portrayed in the espionage story over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Reading works by authors such as Somerset Maugham, Helen MacInnes, John le Carré, Sam E. Greenlee and Gerald Seymour as popular literature deserving of sustained attention, this book shows how these narratives have both created a modern genre and, at the same time, sought an escape from its limitations. Martin Griffin takes up the importance of plot and character and argues that, in this branch of fiction, the personal has always and ever been political.
Reading Espionage Fiction features in the following genres: Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000
Reading Espionage Fiction is available in Paperback, Hardback
Reading Espionage Fiction was written by Martin Griffin and published by Edinburgh University Press
Reading Espionage Fiction has 200 pages
£17.99