Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel

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Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel
Burgessti.jpg
First edition (publ. Heinemann)
Author Anthony Burgess
LanguageEnglish
Genre Spy novel
Publication date
1966
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media type Print
Pages256

Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel (1966), by Anthony Burgess, is an English espionage novel. [1] [2]

Contents

Burgess conceived it as a reaction both to the heavy-handed and humourless spy fiction of John le Carré, and to Ian Fleming's James Bond, a character Burgess thought an imperialist relic. The subtitle "An Eschatological Spy Novel" refers to Burgess's idea of the Cold War as a hostile symbiosis, an "ultimate conflict" for which Good and Evil are inadequate terms. In Burgess's view the Soviet bloc and the West formed a yin and yang-type duoverse. In You've Had Your Time , the second volume of his autobiography, he confesses that the title of the novel occurred to him one hungover morning when his hand began shaking and his wife said, "That is tremor of intent."

The novel has confused some readers and critics because it straddles the dichotomies between serious fiction and comic fiction, and between popular genre storytelling and metaphysical philosophy. It's also an example of one of Burgess's experiments in combining musical forms with literature: its structure is based on sonata form. [3]

The subtitle "An Eschatological Spy Novel" appears on the dust cover of the first American edition, but does not appear on the title page of the novel. [4] The British first edition, published by William Heinemann, does not include the subtitle on the dust cover or the title page.

The uncorrected proofs of the novel state where and when the novel was written: "Etchingham, June 20-August 30, 1965." [5]

Anthony Burgess later wrote a screenplay for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) featuring characters from the novel, but it was rejected in favor of Richard Maibaum's script. [6]

Plot summary

The amoral Agent Hillier of MI6 journeys to the city of Yarylyuk aboard the passenger ship Polyolbion , on a mission to infiltrate a conference of Soviet scientists and return to the United Kingdom with his childhood friend Roper, who has defected to the Soviet Union. En route Hillier meets the sexually precocious sixteen-year-old Clara, the voluptuous femme fatale Miss Devi and the shadowy tycoon Theodorescu.

Related Research Articles

Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligence agencies. It was given new impetus by the development of fascism and communism in the lead-up to World War II, continued to develop during the Cold War, and received a fresh impetus from the emergence of rogue states, international criminal organizations, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy and technological sabotage and espionage as potent threats to Western societies. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure, the thriller and the politico-military thriller.

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References

  1. Worldcat.org
  2. Google Books
  3. Shockley, Alan (2017). Music in the Words: Musical Form and Counterpoint in the Twentieth-Century Novel. Routledge. OCLC   1001968147 . Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  4. Burgess, Anthony, Tremor of Intent, W W Norton, New York, 1966 Dust cover and title page.
  5. Burgess, Anthony, Tremor of Intent,(Uncorrected Proof) William Heinemann, London, 1966 p. 240.
  6. Field, Matthew (2015). Some kind of hero : 007 : the remarkable story of the James Bond films. Ajay Chowdhury. Stroud, Gloucestershire. ISBN   978-0-7509-6421-0. OCLC   930556527.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)