- Paperback: 576 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; New edition edition (5 May 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340494905
- ISBN-13: 978-0340494905
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.9 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 91,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This is the second of le Carre's Smiley novels, featuring the character of George Smiley who was introduced in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". The story involves the betrayal of a Soviet spy and suspicions that the network has been infiltrated from the top downwards.
About the Author
John le Carré was born in 1931. He attended the universities of Bern and Oxford and later taught at Eton. He spent five years in the British Secret Service.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book, the second in the so-called "Smiley versus Karla" trilogy, is bar none, Le Carre's best novel. It is about a complicated ploy by George Smiley, now re-instated in the circus and it's new head, to gain revenge on Karla and Moscow Centre over it's decades long humiliation by the hands of a British spy. The novel is primarily based in the far east, mainly in Hong Kong and reaching out to war-torn Cambodia. The man on the scene, set to land the coup, is Jerry Westerby, a sometime news Reporter, a some time spy for the circus. Unfortunately for him, the cards are stacked against him from the outset. I would read Tinker Tailor before reading this novel, so as to have much of the background knowledge needed. But in my mind this is LeCarre's finest work. Pity the excellent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Smiley's People didn't have this gem filmed along with them as well.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This remains my favorite le Carre novel.It has everything you expect from him, being beautifully written,well paced and with a great feeling for the locations and people.But with this book le Carre has created a most likable hero in Jerry Westerby.Tough,romantic but essentially niave he is a perfect foil to the the fantastically corrupt asia of the last days of the Vietnam war. .The novel builds beautifully having introduced and combined plots,sub plots and a great cast of weird and wonderful bit players rouges, cynics and soldiers as Jerry faithfully follows the orders of his mentor George and plans to betray him.Great stuff.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not just another spy novel! Virtually all of this author's novels are about the slow, painful evolution of both conscience and consciousness in the protagonist, but Honourable Schoolboy stands out because the plotting and imagery work so perfectly with the spiritual journey of Jerry Westerby, which commences when he undertakes a field operation for George Smiley, his sometime mentor, who has just come back into power at the intelligence agency nicknamed "the Circus." This journey of heart and mind is wonderfully played out in Jerry's physical odyssey through Southeast Asia, during the time of the US withdrawal from Vietnam and its neighbors. The novel is peopled with brilliantly drawn side characters that move and fascinate the reader, but never distract (something that is not always the case in Le Carre's work). Conrad and Orwell would both have loved it.
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