Ashenden, Or: The British AgentThis fascinating book contains probably the most expert stories of espionage ever written. For a period of time after it was first published, the book became official required reading for persons entering the British Secret Service. During World War I, Maugham enlisted with an ambulance unit, but was soon shifted to the Intelligence Department. Although these stories were based on the author's own experiences as a British agent during the war, he emphasized that they were written purely as entertainment, at which, indeed, Ashenden succeeds. Maugham's clarity of style, the perfection of his form, the subtlety of his thought, veiled thinly behind a worldly cynicism, has made him an international figure. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 87
When the night-porter fetched me and I went into her room I asked where his
highness was and she cried with all her strength: no, no.” “She could talk then?” “
Yes, after a fashion, but the thing that surprised me was that she spoke in English
.
forced itself upon him; his book dropped to his knees and staring at the wall in
front of him (it had a brown wall-paper with a pattern of dingy roses) he asked
himself how, if one had to, one would commit a murder in Naples. Of course there
was ...
“She's asked him to meet her on the road that leads to Evian at ten o'clock to-
night so that they can talk of it again, and she's given him to understand that she
will not repulse too fiercely the advances of a lover. I have told him to do what he
...
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - kristykay22 - LibraryThingThis is a compelling, although rather chilly, collection of loosely connected short stories following the intelligence work of Ashenden, a writer turned spy for the British government during World War ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - lamour - LibraryThingThis is volume three of Maugham's collected short stories. In this volume he has placed his stories that have the same protagonist, Ashendan, who is recruited to move to Switzerland where he will be a ... Read full review
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Ashenden, Or: The British Agent Volume 5 of Collected edition of the works of W. Somerset Maugham Short story index reprint series |
| Author | William Somerset Maugham |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Doran, 1941 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | 23 May 2009 |
| ISBN | 0836940520, 9780836940527 |
| Length | 304 pages |
| Subjects | › Fiction / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |