In 1982, John le Carré (pseudonym for John David Moore Cornwell) brought together three of his best-selling Cold War novels—
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy(1974),
The Honorable Schoolboy(1977), and
Smiley’s People(1979)—in an omnibus edition published as
The Quest for Karla. In the novels, the sometimes reluctant but committed and honourable British spymaster, George Smiley, confronts his Soviet doppelgänger, Karla, as the two spymasters launch and thwart complicated operations designed to compromise the other’s intelligence agency and undermine the political values each spy espouses. Le Carré uses the ongoing confrontations between the two to explore his favorite ethical dilemmas including means versus ends, democratic versus socialist ideologies, political expediency versus…
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Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Quest for Karla". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 October 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39422, accessed 04 December 2024.]