Ashenden, or, The British Agent

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During World War One, Germany attempted to support Indian nationalists, hoping to distract Britain and preventing Indian troops fighting in Europe. The Indian nationalists in Germany were known as the Berlin Committee. W. Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden, or the British Agent is an example of one of my favourite genres, the early 20th century espionage tale. While spy stories set during World War 2 and during the Cold War have their charms I find the earlier tales set during the First Word War or in the years leading up to that war much more appealing.

In one, he accompanies a man called the Hairless Mexican to Italy, where they are to intercept important papers carried by an arriving Greek agent of the Germans. The Hairless Mexican meets the only Greek on the incoming ship, and during a search of the Greek's hotel room, the Hairless Mexican and Ashenden do not find any papers. As they prepare to leave the country, Ashenden decodes a cable which tells him that the intended Greek had never boarded the ship; spots of dried blood on the Hairless Mexican's sleeve mean that he had killed the wrong man. Un viaggio condito di ironia e cinismo, commedia più che suspense, e soprattutto scrittura piacevole, buona costruzione delle trame, succosi incastri. Fascinating. As the prototype of the ‘cynical’ spy novel, it was ahead of its time. Read it and discover where John le Carré got his ideas from. Ashenden: The Movie Maugham loosely based ‘Chandra Lal’ on one of these nationalists, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, known as Chatto. The British tried to assassinate Chatto while he was in Geneva to meet other Indian nationalists, but in reality, the assassination attempt did not include betrayal by a lover. His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.The work of the agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole extremely monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable. Ashenden, written by Somerset Maugham and loosely based on his experiences as an MI6 agent during World War One, was published in 1928.

the work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole extremely monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable," I became intrigued by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) while reading Tan Twan Eng's historical fiction The House of Doors (2023) where the author is shown in 1921 Penang, Malaya gathering real life stories which were later fictionalized into the short story collection The Casuarina Tree (1926). I didn't want to jump into the latter until I had finished Eng's book [RTC] but I have had Ashenden on my TBR for the longest time, so I read it first.I based my alternative cover on a brief incident in the novel where Ashenden, as a private joke, starts romancing a German agent, the Baroness Von Higgins and they go boating together. It also reflects the rather languid air of the novel. The title uses a classic title archetype, the Protagonist, Ashenden being the name the narrator refers to himself as. Ashenden, a collection of 16 interconnected stories, is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s own experiences as a British secret agent in Switzerland and Russia during World War I. When first published, the stories seemed so authentic that Winston Churchill accused Maugham of breaching the British Official Secrets Act. As a consequence, the author burned 14 unpublished Ashenden texts. The collection is extremely important in the development of British espionage fiction, and both John le Carr and Len Deighton give Ashenden as a source of inspiration for their novels. What makes the stories innovative is that, in contrast to the lurid adventures depicted in the spy fiction of E. Phillips Oppenheimer and William le Queux, the action in the Ashenden stories is often unglamorous, inconclusive, and even anticlimactic.

During World War One, British Intelligence recruits a famous writer and sends him to run a spy ring in Switzerland. The farcical nature of his missions, and the tragic fate of many of the spies, leave him disillusioned with espionage. This fascinating, and delightful, book is often regarded as the first spy story and a precursor to Smiley and James Bond. Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s real life experience working for the Secret Service in WWI, this is a collection of linked stories about his fictional alter ego Ashenden. Like Maugham, Ashenden is an author; approached by a middle-aged Colonel (later known as ‘R’) at a party in London, shortly after the outbreak of the first world war. He suggests that, as Ashenden speaks several European languages and his profession is a perfect cover, he joins the intelligence agency. Despite the comment that, “if you do well you’ll get no thanks and if you get into trouble you’ll get no help,” Ashenden seems happy enough to oblige.Anche se poi si scopre che i racconti di spionaggio sono solo i primi cinque, e che la spia ricorrente, Ashenden, è uno scrittore, che in veste di spia è più bravo come psicologo che agente, più capace di leggere e interpretare che di scoprire, più attore che risolutore. It was left for the Impressionists to paint what they saw. They tried to catch nature in its fleeting beauty; they were content to render the radiance of sunlight, the colour of shadows or the translucency of the air. They aimed at truth. They wanted a painter to be no more than an eye and a hand. They despised intelligence. Popplewell, Richard J (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904–1924., Routledge, ISBN 0-7146-4580-X . Ashenden– Secret Agent 1914-1918: The Hairless Mexican in five episodes, adapted by Howard Agg, produced by George Angell and read by Leo Genn. [23]

Ashenden – Secret Agent 1914-1918: Giulia Lazzari in five episodes, adapted by Howard Agg, produced by George Angell and read by Leo Genn. [24] There is also a story about the flamboyant “Hairless-Mexican”, who wears a wig, in fact several, but hasn’t a hair on his face. Maugham has the ability to make a despicable person interesting, intriguing and kind of fun. You should not like the person, but you do! Barooah, N.K (2004), Chatto: The Life and Times of an Anti-Imperialist in Europe., Oxford University Press, USA., ISBN 0-19-566547-3 .

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Ashenden is a thinly disguised memoire of Maugham's own period in wartime (1914-1918) secret service work. For all his customary detachment, he is very aware of and interested in the moral issues involved in such work. A Chance Acquaintance", "Love and Russian Literature", "Mr. Harrington's Washing" as Mr. Harrington's Washing