I actually listened to this as an audiobook.

What surprised me on listening to this was the quality of the writing style and the characterisation. I was immediately captured by this description, early in the first chapter, of Jim Prideaux’s arrival as a temporary teacher at a boy’s boarding school (I imagine we’re talking about the 1960s, here):

"Jim Prideaux arrived on a Friday in a rainstorm. The rain rolled like gun-smoke down the brown combes of the Quantocks, then raced across the empty cricket fields into the sandstone of the crumbling facades. He arrived just after lunch, driving an old red Alvis and towing a second-hand caravan that had once been blue. Early afternoons at Thursgood’s are a tranquil time, a brief truce in the running fight of each school day. The boys are sent to rest in their dormitories, the staff sit in the common room over coffee reading newspapers or correcting boys’ work… Of the whole school therefore only little Bill Roach actually saw Jim arrive, saw the steam belching from the Alvis’ bonnet as it wheezed its way down the pitted drive, windscreen wipers going full pelt and the caravan shuddering through the puddles in pursuit… Roach decided later that [Jim] must have made a reconnaissance or studied maps. Even when he reached the yard he didn’t stop but drove straight on to the wet grass, travelling at speed to keep the momentum. Then over the hummock into the Dip, head first and out of sight. Roach half expected the caravan to jack-knife on the brink, Jim took it over so fast, but instead it just lifted its tail and disappeared like a giant rabbit into its hole."

This little scene tells us so much about Jim’s circumstances and character even though we haven’t met him yet, and so much about the young schoolboy Bill Roach, the watcher. It’s lovely writing, I think.

It’s a spy story, yes. But despite the intricacies of the Cold War plot it’s mostly a story about character. About Jim Prideaux, the ex-agent who has been terribly betrayed. About the quiet, unassuming George Smiley, with a razor sharp mind, patiently and secretly trying to identify who and what was behind that betrayal. About the cast of characters in charge of the Circus, London headquarters of the spy agency. ( )

cold war spy fiction (1974) set in UK, London. I guess this is supposed to be suspenseful (as in which of these spies is the mole? Trust no one!) but I feel like it's kind of pointless to keep talking to the rest of the spy network (who can't give straight answers anyway) when you could just talk to Jim Prideau.

lots of coded spy dialogue (which I found confusing, which I guess is the point?) and men being arrogant and acting superior, but otherwise interesting atmospheric prose descriptions of mood/place, whenever actual story is allowed to take place. This is not a plot-driven novel so much as a confusing whodunnit where you can't really trust anyone to tell the truth and every piece of the mystery takes pages of oblique dialogue to uncover. You'd have to be really into the genre to enjoy it, I think.

picked up from Little Free Library, author I've not read before, 2024 reading challenge: book to movie/adapted for screen. ( )

I've been meaning to read this for years and I'm so glad I finally picked it up. What great characters! I have to read the entire Karla trilogy now, I just can't face not having Smiley in my life for a little longer. ( )

I rated this book a "3" only because it is a little hard to follow since it is written by a British author and I am not as familiar with some of the colloquisms and spy jargon. It was a good story and I would like to see the movie. ( )

Too complicated; too many characters; good writing with a lot of British jargon. Bill Haydon was the mole. ( )

What a cracking read! A really engrossing plot, and George Smiley is such a great character. I like the way that Le Carré tosses in little details or bits of argot that you're not really sure if you should know or not, and let them develop or not. It keeps you slightly off-balance in a way that feels highly appropriate here.

The plot is deceptively simple - I often felt that not much was happening, or things were being advanced by exposition, but actually it's all constructed beautifully. It doesn't have the same squalid feeling as the last couple of Smiley novels, and I actually missed that a little. I guess you could grumble that one or two of the other lead characters could have been better defined, but I think Le Carré likes to keep his novels sparse where possible. Worried about the film now - everyone seems too young and good looking. Ah well.

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Too much talking!!!!!! The whole book (almost) is one big debriefing or interrogation. I understand the importance of that in conveying the world of espionage in that this is much more the way things are than James Bond, but the talking and the spycraft is so tedious. I would have enjoyed this much moreso if some of the scenes being talked about were presented as action instead. I just found it too dry. ( )

The first of a series of novels by John Le Carré about the British espionage agent George Smiley and his long-ranging battle against Soviet spy-master Karla is splendidly written and methodically, quietly thrilling. It is also somewhat thick going at times, with a large number of characters to track and a patois pertinent to the espionage trade that is often left to the reader to decipher purely by context. The cold, relentless, doggedness of the plot is exhilarating despite being largely people simply asking and answering (or not answering) questions. Something of the anti-James Bond, in that shoot-outs and derring-do are virtually absent, the book nonetheless pulls the reader along forcibly but with gentility. There's a melancholy air about the milieu and around George Smiley, the ousted, cuckolded senior agent. It's a very good book. ( )

This is an absolute masterwork. It's also a spy novel, which means that I can't really discuss it much without introducing subtle little spoilers. Who knows, maybe it's so damn good that spoilers don't matter and it would probably be even better on a second reading, but just in case, stop reading this review and go and pick it up.

The prose is lucid, the plot compelling, the characters brilliant, the ideas engaging and the moral journey richly rewarding. See, I've done it already. I told you to stop reading. What does "moral journey" mean? As you read this book you'll be so desperate for clues that every review you've ever read will rattle around inside your brain and possibly distract you. Best to just take my word for it and go and pick it up. If you're worried that this is not really your genre, don't. I have read two spy novels in my life and although this is undoubtedly genre fiction, it transcends its genre entirely. If you only read one spy novel in your life, make it this one. ( )

Grand fun! A real spy novel! Smiley has to figure it all out and finally sets a trap to catch the mole. Now, with my third Le Carre novel, I have hit a classic. ( )

3 1/2 stars. I read several of le Carre's Smiley books back in the late 70s and my overall memory of them was that they were OK but not that interesting. Spurred on by the selection of this book as a group read for a GoodReads group, I decided it was time to revisit this and see if my opinion had changed.

I remembered very little of the details of the plot but unfortunately discovered that my impression still held true. I can now admire le Carre's writing, and the espionage mole hunt for a Russian agent inside the British "Circus" was probably realisitic, but the pace was too slow for me. I also found Smiley himself a character that I never bonded to - and disliked all the stuff about his wife Ann. I much preferred [b:Agent in Place|550739|Agent in Place|Helen MacInnes|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1282706669s/550739.jpg|2913443] by Helen MacInnes and [b:The Cardinal of the Kremlin|382549|The Cardinal of the Kremlin (Jack Ryan, #4)|Tom Clancy|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1319381380s/382549.jpg|17028815] by Tom Clancy which deal with the same basic premise. ( )

I don't get this one. Bureaucracy and paperwork investigations aren't very thrilling. Disappointing after "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold". ( )

I seem to be one of the rare reviewers who didn’t love or hate this book. It was good, kept me engaged, but wasn’t amazing like I’ve seen the 5 stars review say. The British slang did throw me for a bit, but was easy to overcome by context clues and life experience, and it definitely wasn’t as rough as the 1 star reviews say. All in all, I’m glad I read it, but don’t think that I’d seek out any of the sequels. ( )

I was surprised by this book. It's a fairly quiet story, but filled with tradecraft and great characters. I'm certain it's an accurate depiction of a spy's life: more sneakiness and suspicion than car chases and silencers in the dark. ( )

Exquisite characterisation, and an admirable drive to the plot despite the very quiet and reserved nature of the story. Still can't help but be somewhat slow at times, and in its (succeeded) quest for believability, is a bit mired in overly many names and minor characters without much plot relevance. ( )

I Smileys sjuttiotal tvingas George Smiley tillbaka till underrättelse-tjänsten från sin ofrivilliga pensionering för att fånga en "mullvad"; en dubbelagent läcker till ryssarna och de brittiska spioner som gömmer sig i öst svävar i akut livsfara. Smiley själv befinner sig snart på ett politiskt och byråkratiskt minfält där mullvadens illgärningar hotar hela den brittiska underrättelsetjänsten. Så börjar en oefterliknelig katt-och-råtta-lek mellan Smiley och hans sovjetiske nemesis Karla.

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The BBC mini series is one of my favorites; it was time I read the book, and I am quite satisfied. ( )

The magic of le Carré is the ability to portray the intrigue of the cold war without wallowing in the jingoism that otherwise dominates the genre. ( )

A very, very fine novel, probably all too often underrated simply for being a "genre" book. I think at bottom I fundamentally disagree with what Le Carré is saying here, but that doesn't diminish his accomplishment here, nor the enjoyment I got from the book. The implied narrative voice is very jaundiced and cynical, farther so than I'd be willing to follow him, but the through line of the plot is very strong, the characters are good, the story is well-paced and pays off nicely.

Le Carré is widely regarded as the best (by far) of all the espionage novelists - I'm not quite willing to sign on to that on the strength of this one book alone, but I am at least willing to entertain the proposition as a reasonable one. ( )

What I liked about it:

Characters are described well they have extra details that while not driving the plot, create a more vivid character whose motivations and consequent actions are more integral.

Atmosphere is immersive and intriguing (the author uses spy jargon like 'watchers' and 'bag men' and the like without bothering to explain the terms. I found this worked to draw me into the POV of the main spy character. In particular towards the end I found the author really hit his stride and I really felt the the tension and anxiety of the characters coming through strong.

What I thought could be improved:

Pace is a bit slow at times, I found the story of the school and Jim Prideaux at lot pacier and more intriguing than the story of about George Smiley. I enjoyed the read but didn't find it a page turner the whole way through. ( )

Oh, the joys of reading the master of the understated spy thriller! To quote a theme song from a movie based on a book by a very different spy novelist, "Nobody Does It Better".

Here we have Smiley fully developed as a character, out of the shadows, front and center in the plot. Not only do we observe Smiley's cautious unveiling of the mole at the very top levels of The Circus, the British spy agency, but we meet for the first time Russian spymaster Karla who will become his nemesis through two succeeding volumes.

These books bear close reading - or listening, in my case. Nuances of plot and character are presented quietly as the story unfolds, the tone a reflection, perhaps, of Smiley's diffident personality. le Carré has Smiley weave together, through the carefully elicited recollections of others, the bits and pieces of an ill-fated venture which led to his own downfall (though he had no awareness of it at the time it occurred). We must pay careful attention to the subtext of each of Smiley's discoveries as they are related if we are to keep up with the subtleties of his mind.

Each of the individuals who populate Smiley's world of spies is richly drawn. No character placeholders here, these are people with depth of personality, even if they aren't on the stage for long. This is essential since often it is the relationships among these characters that determine the events and the outcome of the story.

Such a satisfying read. BTW, I haven't yet acquired an audio copy of the next Smiley, [b:The Honourable Schoolboy|18990|The Honourable Schoolboy|John le Carré|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348762526l/18990._SY75_.jpg|79986], but I hope I can find one with the same narrator. Frederick Davidson was superb. ( )

”I like you to have doubts,” he said. “It tells me where you stand. But don’t make a cult of them or you’ll be a bore.”

Impossible to think how anyone could live the life of one of John le Carre’s cold war spies and not be assaulted by doubt day and night. Still, they must all be entertaining just the right amount, because none of these characters is a bore. Nobody does spy thriller quite as well as John le Carre, and [b:Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy|10073506|Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (The Karla Trilogy #1)|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349070201s/10073506.jpg|2491780] is John le Carre at his best.

Of course, there are the usual elements of a spy novel. The Russians are pitted against the Western world and, in this particular case, there is a mole within the Circus that is wreaking havoc on the entire system. Although he has been ousted from the service, George Smiley is called in to sort through the detritus and unravel the gordian knot, and the strands seem to run in all directions right up to the end. Ah, but there is so much more than that.

George Smiley is such a unique character. Like Sherlock Holmes, he has a personae all his own; unlike Holmes, he is an unassuming, all too human, observer of humanity. While most people, particularly those at the Circus, are scrambling to reach the top and be in control, Smiley seems to accept the role of power thrust upon him rather reluctantly.

He was aware of a modest sense of approaching conquest. He had been driven a long way, he had sailed backwards and forwards. Tomorrow, if he was lucky, he might spot land; a peaceful little desert island, for instance. Somewhere Karla had never heard of. Just for him and Ann.

I believe it makes him more likeable that his dreams are as unlikely to come true as any we might dream ourselves. He sees into the hearts of other people, a deft listener who understands what is going on beneath the surface; but he is often blind to himself, and aren’t we all.

This is a novel about spies, but it is also a novel about intrigue, friendship, deception, idol worship, and betrayal. Betrayal in all its forms, betrayal of country, of friendship, of love, of innocence, and of trust. Perhaps men in this line of work should not expect better, but we come to understand that these men are the “lovely boys” who came into this darkness after fighting a war on the side of morality and when still charged with the ideals of that war and their youth. The men they become bear almost no resemblance to the boys they were, and the reality of what they have become is heartbreaking.

This was not my first reading of this remarkable book, and I find it lost none of its luster during all those years it was collecting dust on my bookshelf.
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I finally got around to reading the classic spy novel. I won't pretend that I completely followed it -- not just the double agency confused me, but also the intentionally disjointed chronology. But I can definitely understand why it's a classic, and it WAS a fun read! ( )

The first I read, and still the best. ( )