Ashenden - Softcover

Maugham, W. Somerset

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140174311 ISBN 13: 9780140174311

Publisher: Penguin, 1992

Synopsis

A collection of stories featuring Ashenden--a writer drawn into the war through undercover intelligence--reflects the author's experiences in the Intelligence Department during World War I. (General Fiction).

About this title

Review:

"The most persuasive espionage fiction" (New York Times)

"The first spy story written by someone who had been there and done that. A humane and compassionate antidote to two-fisted, square-jawed heroes battling dastardly foreigners. The head of British Intelligence is known only as "R", anticipating James Bond's "M" by a quarter of a century" (The Times)

"Thoughtful spy novels began with Somerset Maugham's Ashenden, featuring a detached hero on a journey to disillusion, a process brought to its apotheosis by le Carre via Greene" (Daily Telegraph)

"A collection of stories so accurate that Churchill ordered the destruction of 14 of them, while Russian intelligence immediately set up a special unit to read British spy novels for clues" (New Statesman)

Book Description:

Maugham's set of stories about his wartime spy John Ashenden, who prefigured James Bond with his exploits with exotic enemies and exotic women

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0140174311
• ISBN 13: 9780140174311
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256