A Perfect Spy

For the television adaptation, see A Perfect Spy (TV series).

A Perfect Spy
First edition cover
Author(s)	John le Carré
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Spy novel
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton (UK) & Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (USA)
Publication date	1986
Media type	Print (Hardback and Paperback)
Pages	475 pages (Hardback edition) & 688 (Paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-394-55141-9 (Hardback edition) & 0671042750 (Paperback edition)
OCLC Number	13093947
Dewey Decimal	823/.914 19
LC Classification	PR6062.E33 P47 1986

A Perfect Spy (1986) by British author John le Carré is a novel about the mental and moral dissolution of a high level secret agent.

Plot introduction

A Perfect Spy is the life story of Magnus Pym, a British intelligence officer and double agent. After attending his father's funeral, Pym mysteriously disappears. As his fellow intelligence officers frantically search for him it becomes clear that, throughout most of his career, Magnus worked as a spy for the Czechoslovak secret service. Although intrigue, wit, and suspense compose the novel, the story of Magnus Pym is partly an unadorned recollection of Magnus' childhood and memories of his father Rick Pym.

The non-linear narrative cuts back and forth between the present-day manhunt for Pym by his mentor, boss, and longtime friend, Jack Brotherhood, and Pym's first-person reminiscences of his life as, in hiding, he writes a memoir explaining to his family and friends why he betrayed his country. It incorporates flashbacks to Pym's childhood with is father, the enterprising, charismatic rogue and con-man, Rick; to his early years at school and university; to his many amorous adventures, to his introduction to espionage and state secrets; and to his encounters with long-time friend and Czech spy Axel. The portraits reveal Pym as a man who for so long has manipulated his appearance to those closest to him that, in the end, he was unable to hold together the conflicting personae in his self. Magnus Pym has been a perfect spy, but at the cost of his soul.

Autobiographical aspects

As the author himself has admitted, a large part of the novel is a thinly disguised autobiographical account of le Carré's own early life. Before he became a novelist, David Cornwell (John le Carré) was an intelligence officer for MI6, the British intelligence service, although there are no allegations that he ever betrayed his country and spied for another country like the character Magnus Pym. Like Magnus, le Carré lost his mother at an early age, was sent to an abusive prep school, studied languages at the University of Berne in Switzerland, in the 1950s worked for the Intelligence Corps of the British Army in Austria interrogating Czech defectors, and at Oxford University spied on far-left student groups for MI5.

Rick Pym, the charismatic con man father of Magnus in the novel, is based on le Carré's father, Ronnie Cornwell. Ronnie was a confidence man and associate of the Kray twins London organized crime figures. He made and lost several fortunes through elaborate confidence schemes, and was jailed for insurance fraud. Le Carré's biographer Lynndianne Beene describes Ronnie as 'an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values'. Le Carré's relationship with his father was troubled, and he has said,

"Writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised".

Literary significance and criticism

A Perfect Spy marks John le Carré's transition from writing spy novels, more about character than about gun action, to complex character studies of men and women who are spies. Many readers and literary critics consider this novel his best. Philip Roth called it "the best English novel since the war".

Adaptations

A 1987 TV adaptation of the same name was produced by the BBC starring Peter Egan. In an audiobook recording of John le Carré reading aloud an abridged version of this book, he introduces the work as THE Perfect Spy.

External links

• John le Carre discusses A Perfect Spy on the BBC World Book Club