Recommended Smiley Series Reading Order
Feb. 9th, 2019 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
are_youreadyI've made a recommended reading order for this series before, on Tumblr, but I thought I should update it.
The Publication Order:
In terms of warnings, I would say basically what you'd expect from a white British man who started writing in the sixties; a good deal of Orientalism when East Asia comes up, a lot of fairly flat female characters, one or two instances of straight up cut and dried hatred-variety racism, a lot of creepy age gap relationships but generally no sexual assault, fortunately. John also has a very complicated relationship to homosexuality, which I will discuss at length if anyone wants me to, but suffice to say that there are a lot of evil gays and a lot of buried gays, but not all of either, and there are, for the time period, a lot of gays. His relationship to Jewish people is... not great. He thinks Jewish men are sexy, and all of his Jewish characters are ~Tragique. Oh well.
Feel free to ask about any of these if you want details.
Here we go.
1) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Read this first. If Tinker Tailor can't get you into the series, nothing can. It introduces George and gives you a taste of le Carre at his best. It's compassionate, vicious, tragic, funny, gripping, atmospheric, psychological... everything you want from a good novel, really. And it's a love story. Who can turn down a good love story?
2) Smiley's People. Now, technically, the Karla Trilogy goes Tinker Tailor, then The Honorable Schoolboy, then Smiley's People. Do not read The Honorable Schoolboy. Certainly do not read it as your second le Carre novel ever. If you are a completionist, I have marked a space for it later in the list where you should read it if you choose to do so. But don't read it second and disappoint yourself. Smiley's People, on the other hand, is nearly as good as Tinker Tailor, if extremely different. It's somewhat more of a mystery novel, and has more of a driving engine behind it. I sometimes describe it as "Georgie is back, and this time he's pissed," which I stand by as an accurate description. Most of our old friends from Tinker Tailor are back for an encore, and what an encore it is.
3) The Secret Pilgrim. I would recommend not reading this book. It's pretty bad, and not all that related to the Smiley series as a whole, though interesting analytically as a lens through which to view le Carre's other books in general. However, if you're going to read it, after Smiley's People is the place to do it, as it throws us a few bones as to the post-SP whereabouts of our friends.
4) Call for the Dead. This is a sweet little novel. You can kind of tell that it's le Carre's first, but that's alright. It's a solid piece of detective pulp in which you can see the shape of other, more "literary" things to come. It gives a good deal of insight into George as a character, and it has a strong, memorable supporting cast, including Inspector Mendel, and an earlier, very different iteration of Peter Guillam.
5) A Murder of Quality. This isn't a good book, but it's so short that you could probably finish it in an hour of you were really fast, so I'm hesitant to recommend against reading it. It's detective pulp, like Call for the Dead, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. This is, I think, a result of the fairly (with an exception or two!) lackluster cast, and the fact that it is completely not a spy novel. However, if you are particularly interested in the befuckedness of George and Ann's relationship, you should probably read this for the couple of tidbits strewn around.
6) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. There's a reason this book made him an overnight multimillionaire, y'all. Read this. It's harsh. It's dark. It's bleak. It's difficult to read, emotionally, in a way a lot of his other stuff is not. It's straightforward and without intellectual pretensions in a way a lot of his other stuff is not. It's worth it.
7) The Looking Glass War. Honestly? This one is underrated; I didn't like it very much until I'd reread it months later. It's something of a diptych with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. They are in a sense the same story, first, in Spy Who, as tragedy, then, in Looking Glass, as farce. But there is a long boring chunk in the middle. You will have to slog through. I am sorry. Neither this one nor Spy Who has much to do with the Smiley series, really, but you can't exactly read the Smiley series without reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and I am of the firm opinion that if you're reading Spy Who, you should read Looking Glass along with it. This pair could technically be read anytime after reading Call for the Dead, as they're not super necessary for the rest of the series, but they do give a certain perspective on some of the characters which I think is worth having.
8) A Legacy of Spies. Please, I am begging you, do not read this book!!! It's fucking unbearable!!! It's garbage!!! Here, let me tell you all of the information you could possibly care about from this book: Jim and Bill are canon gays after forty years of eyebrow waggling, Mendel's first name is Oliver, George is spending his old age doing poetry research in Germany and living separately from Ann, Jim is still at Thursgood's in 2017, Ann and George haven't had sex since, like, the fifties. There. That's everything. Through gritted teeth, I must advise that if you really like Mendel, or Mendel-and-George, then I guess you should try and wade through this quagmire of ruined canon, Peter Guillam's sex life, and bad writing, but do yourself a favor and just skim until Mendel shows up.
9) Reread Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Every one of these books, or at least the good ones, has incredible reread value, but I guarantee you missed enough in the first go through Tinker Tailor to make it a whole different story. Also, it will remind you that John is a good writer after fucking Legacy, if you made the mistake of reading it.
10) The Honorable Schoolboy. Look. It's a bad, racist book, with an unbearable, hate-able protagonist. But it's somewhat unique among his shitty books. First of all, the prose is actually spectacular, nearly as good as Tinker Tailor (which is where I think he's at his best, prosewise, at least among the Smiley series). Second of all, there's actually a really great subplot which I refer to as Peter Guillam's buffoon adventures with George, which the book is almost - but not quite - worth reading for. But it's still really, really, really bad, and super racist. It seems like it's gonna be kind of an acceptable if sub-par novel for the first third or so, but then it becomes the most boring book ever written. Don't read it.
11) Reread Smiley's People. I must admit, I put the reading list in this order on the assumption that you would inevitably read the Honorable Schoolboy. If you are never going to read Schoolboy l would end things with the Tinker Tailor reread as a nice bookend, then you can make your own choices about what else to reread and stuff. But if I cannot dissuade you from reading Schoolboy, I must at least attempt to convince you to cleanse your pallet with Smiley's People afterwards. It's a perfect end to the series, and like Tinker Tailor, its reread value is practically infinite.
The Publication Order:
- Call for the Dead (1961)
- A Murder of Quality (1962)
- The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1963)
- The Looking Glass War (1965)
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974)
- The Honorable Schoolboy (1976)
- Smiley's People (1979)
- The Secret Pilgrim (1990)
- A Legacy of Spies (2017)
In terms of warnings, I would say basically what you'd expect from a white British man who started writing in the sixties; a good deal of Orientalism when East Asia comes up, a lot of fairly flat female characters, one or two instances of straight up cut and dried hatred-variety racism, a lot of creepy age gap relationships but generally no sexual assault, fortunately. John also has a very complicated relationship to homosexuality, which I will discuss at length if anyone wants me to, but suffice to say that there are a lot of evil gays and a lot of buried gays, but not all of either, and there are, for the time period, a lot of gays. His relationship to Jewish people is... not great. He thinks Jewish men are sexy, and all of his Jewish characters are ~Tragique. Oh well.
Feel free to ask about any of these if you want details.
Here we go.
1) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Read this first. If Tinker Tailor can't get you into the series, nothing can. It introduces George and gives you a taste of le Carre at his best. It's compassionate, vicious, tragic, funny, gripping, atmospheric, psychological... everything you want from a good novel, really. And it's a love story. Who can turn down a good love story?
2) Smiley's People. Now, technically, the Karla Trilogy goes Tinker Tailor, then The Honorable Schoolboy, then Smiley's People. Do not read The Honorable Schoolboy. Certainly do not read it as your second le Carre novel ever. If you are a completionist, I have marked a space for it later in the list where you should read it if you choose to do so. But don't read it second and disappoint yourself. Smiley's People, on the other hand, is nearly as good as Tinker Tailor, if extremely different. It's somewhat more of a mystery novel, and has more of a driving engine behind it. I sometimes describe it as "Georgie is back, and this time he's pissed," which I stand by as an accurate description. Most of our old friends from Tinker Tailor are back for an encore, and what an encore it is.
3) The Secret Pilgrim. I would recommend not reading this book. It's pretty bad, and not all that related to the Smiley series as a whole, though interesting analytically as a lens through which to view le Carre's other books in general. However, if you're going to read it, after Smiley's People is the place to do it, as it throws us a few bones as to the post-SP whereabouts of our friends.
4) Call for the Dead. This is a sweet little novel. You can kind of tell that it's le Carre's first, but that's alright. It's a solid piece of detective pulp in which you can see the shape of other, more "literary" things to come. It gives a good deal of insight into George as a character, and it has a strong, memorable supporting cast, including Inspector Mendel, and an earlier, very different iteration of Peter Guillam.
5) A Murder of Quality. This isn't a good book, but it's so short that you could probably finish it in an hour of you were really fast, so I'm hesitant to recommend against reading it. It's detective pulp, like Call for the Dead, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. This is, I think, a result of the fairly (with an exception or two!) lackluster cast, and the fact that it is completely not a spy novel. However, if you are particularly interested in the befuckedness of George and Ann's relationship, you should probably read this for the couple of tidbits strewn around.
6) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. There's a reason this book made him an overnight multimillionaire, y'all. Read this. It's harsh. It's dark. It's bleak. It's difficult to read, emotionally, in a way a lot of his other stuff is not. It's straightforward and without intellectual pretensions in a way a lot of his other stuff is not. It's worth it.
7) The Looking Glass War. Honestly? This one is underrated; I didn't like it very much until I'd reread it months later. It's something of a diptych with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. They are in a sense the same story, first, in Spy Who, as tragedy, then, in Looking Glass, as farce. But there is a long boring chunk in the middle. You will have to slog through. I am sorry. Neither this one nor Spy Who has much to do with the Smiley series, really, but you can't exactly read the Smiley series without reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and I am of the firm opinion that if you're reading Spy Who, you should read Looking Glass along with it. This pair could technically be read anytime after reading Call for the Dead, as they're not super necessary for the rest of the series, but they do give a certain perspective on some of the characters which I think is worth having.
8) A Legacy of Spies. Please, I am begging you, do not read this book!!! It's fucking unbearable!!! It's garbage!!! Here, let me tell you all of the information you could possibly care about from this book: Jim and Bill are canon gays after forty years of eyebrow waggling, Mendel's first name is Oliver, George is spending his old age doing poetry research in Germany and living separately from Ann, Jim is still at Thursgood's in 2017, Ann and George haven't had sex since, like, the fifties. There. That's everything. Through gritted teeth, I must advise that if you really like Mendel, or Mendel-and-George, then I guess you should try and wade through this quagmire of ruined canon, Peter Guillam's sex life, and bad writing, but do yourself a favor and just skim until Mendel shows up.
9) Reread Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Every one of these books, or at least the good ones, has incredible reread value, but I guarantee you missed enough in the first go through Tinker Tailor to make it a whole different story. Also, it will remind you that John is a good writer after fucking Legacy, if you made the mistake of reading it.
10) The Honorable Schoolboy. Look. It's a bad, racist book, with an unbearable, hate-able protagonist. But it's somewhat unique among his shitty books. First of all, the prose is actually spectacular, nearly as good as Tinker Tailor (which is where I think he's at his best, prosewise, at least among the Smiley series). Second of all, there's actually a really great subplot which I refer to as Peter Guillam's buffoon adventures with George, which the book is almost - but not quite - worth reading for. But it's still really, really, really bad, and super racist. It seems like it's gonna be kind of an acceptable if sub-par novel for the first third or so, but then it becomes the most boring book ever written. Don't read it.
11) Reread Smiley's People. I must admit, I put the reading list in this order on the assumption that you would inevitably read the Honorable Schoolboy. If you are never going to read Schoolboy l would end things with the Tinker Tailor reread as a nice bookend, then you can make your own choices about what else to reread and stuff. But if I cannot dissuade you from reading Schoolboy, I must at least attempt to convince you to cleanse your pallet with Smiley's People afterwards. It's a perfect end to the series, and like Tinker Tailor, its reread value is practically infinite.
no subject
on 2019-02-10 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-11 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-10 08:34 pm (UTC)He really did do that, didn't he?
Also I can't say how happy I am to see this post again! Your takes on these books are so good!
no subject
on 2019-02-11 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-11 01:32 pm (UTC)But, it's probably good. ;)
(Well, I did read Tinker, Tailor first. But then I went back and started in on publishing order. Of course, I've paused for almost a year, so who knows what that says. Need to read The Looking Glass War soon.)
no subject
on 2019-02-11 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-11 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-11 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2019-02-12 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2024-02-25 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2024-07-08 06:05 am (UTC)If you want to avoid fetishistic depictions of a non-white* Other that could be argued to be Orientalist in the sense that Orientalism is a particular way of fetishizing non-white Others, you're SOL, I don't think there are really any John le Carre books that don't do that. In the Smiley series, the only ones that don't engage in that are A Murder of Quality (hardly worth reading) and The Looking Glass War (worth reading but rather a slog).
*non-white here is complex, a lot of the fetishized Others in le Carre novels are Jewish. He definitely does not see Jews as white.