The Secret Pilgrim

George Smiley Novels, Book 8

By: John Le Carré

Narrated by: Simon Vance

“The many ingredients are skillfully marshaled: story elides into story; flashback and flash-forward, reminiscence, analysis and prognosis are lucidly and elegantly controlled. Indeed, The Secret Pilgrim is, technically, Mr. le Carré's most magisterial accomplishment.” —The New York Times Book Review (1991)

With his time in British intelligence drawing to a close, veteran spy “Ned” asks his colleague George Smiley to address his graduating class of trainee spies in Sarratt. Smiley’s remarks on espionage in the wake of the Cold War serve as trigger and backdrop for a series of recollections and memories of Ned’s many decades as a British spy.

Both a reminiscence of times past and a meditation on the future, The Secret Pilgrim—published more than ten years after Smiley's People and little more than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall—is a mosaic that masterfully captures the complex and contradictory moral landscapes of Cold War intelligence.

©1991 David Cornwell (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Critic reviews

“Intriguing… magisterial… The many ingredients are skillfully marshaled… Lucidly and elegantly controlled.—The New York Times Book Review

A variety of motives

Ned is a dedicated professional always perplexed by the situations he encounters, like many people in the current world. Le Carre, through Smiley, is honest in describing our world. I believe Le Carre said of the service in an interview (parapharising) he wished they had been better.

ambiguity

Characters handle the requisite moral ambiguity differently. universally it takes a toll on their sanity.