Ashenden, Or: The British AgentAshenden: The British Agent is founded on Maugham's experiences in the English Intelligence Department during World War I, but rearranged for the purposes of fiction. This fascinating book contains 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 secret service. The plot follows the imaginary John Ashenden who during World War I is a spy for British Intelligence. He is sent first to Geneva and later to Russia. Instead of one story from start to finish, the chapters contain individual stories involving many different characters. All of the people whom Ashenden meets during his travels have their own reason for being involved in the spy game, and each are more complex than they first look. |
From inside the book
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... seemed to hear the cry of the oppressed : I felt the lonely steppes and the interminable forests ; the flow of the broad Russian rivers and all the toil of the countryside ; the ploughing of the land and the reaping of the ripe wheat ...
... seemed to hear the cry of the oppressed : I felt the lonely steppes and the interminable forests ; the flow of the broad Russian rivers and all the toil of the countryside ; the ploughing of the land and the reaping of the ripe wheat ...
Page 157
... seemed to him that the most vivid of his memories was not of himself , but of the crowd ; he seemed to remember sun and heat and people ; the train was crowded and so was the hotel , the lake steamers were packed and on the quays and in ...
... seemed to him that the most vivid of his memories was not of himself , but of the crowd ; he seemed to remember sun and heat and people ; the train was crowded and so was the hotel , the lake steamers were packed and on the quays and in ...
Page 268
... seemed an age , alone he sat down Literature and looked about him . He had not the energy to start immediately to unpack . How many of these hotel bedrooms had he known since the beginning of the war , grand or shabby , in one place and ...
... seemed an age , alone he sat down Literature and looked about him . He had not the energy to start immediately to unpack . How many of these hotel bedrooms had he known since the beginning of the war , grand or shabby , in one place and ...
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Common terms and phrases
agent Alix ambassador Anastasia Alexandrovna answer Ashen Ashenden felt Ashenden knew Ashenden looked Ashenden saw Ashenden thought asked Ashenden baroness bassador Bolsheviks Brindisi Byring Caypor chance Chandra Colonel course cried Delilah detective dine dinner door enden English everything eyes face Fafner feeling fellow fool France Fritzi gave Geneva German Giulia give glance Gustav Hairless Mexican hand Harrington head heart Herbert Witherspoon Holzminden hour humour lake laughed Lausanne Lazzari letter Lucerne married Mexican opened mind Miss King Monsieur morning neutral country never night notion O'Malley once opened Paris passport Petrograd play round Russian scrambled eggs seemed shoulders shrugged Sir Herbert sitting smile Somerville stood story Swiss Switzerland talk tell there's thing Thonon tion told took train turned Vladimir wait walked watched wife woman wondered word write