Book Review: Ashenden or The British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham
Archduke Ferdinand has been shot, and Europe is rapidly tipping in to the Great War. Britain can no longer rely on a small number of trained government agents to handle its necessary intelligence efforts. But who to recruit? Perhaps a writer who’s currently between books and knows several languages? And thus it is that Ashenden becomes a British agent.
The Ashenden stories (this volume is more a fix-up of short stories than a novel as such) were loosely based on W. Somerset Maugham’s real-life experiences as a British agent during World War I. As such, they come across as more plausible than some other spy fiction–these are things that might possibly have happened, perhaps juiced up a bit with artistic license.
Ashenden spends most of his time in Switzerland, trying to identify German agents while taking reports from informers and serving as a paymaster. He’s the more bureaucratic type of agent, observing the beginning, middle or end of operations, but almost never knowing the whole story. The one James Bond-like action agent we see is the “Hairless Mexican,” and we see why this may not be the right kind of spy for most missions.
One of Ashenden’s more active roles is attempting to trick an Indian freedom agitator into crossing the border into a non-neutral country by coercing the man’s mistress. While the agitator is treated as an enemy by the narrative (most British people weren’t sympathetic to the idea that they should not rule India in 1916), the story doesn’t shy away from the fact that Ashenden’s actions here are not morally good. My edition has a scene from this arc on the cover; both Ashenden and the woman in question are painted as more conventionally attractive than in the story. (For example, Ashenden is balding and uses a combover.)
Towards the end of the book, Ashenden is ordered into Russia in an attempt to keep it in the war on the side of the Allies. As with real life, this mission fails, but not because of any fault on Ashenden’s part, but rather it was already too late. It’s also at this point that Maugham suddenly says, “wait, I forgot to tell you that Ashenden’s heterosexual” and introduces an ex-lover. (Maugham’s own sexuality was…complicated, see Wikipedia or a good biography.)
If you’re looking for a spy action thriller, this isn’t it. The strong point here is character studies, both of Ashenden himself, and the various people he meets in the course of his job. Particularly striking is a Too Much Information story shared by an ambassador that Ashenden has helped out.
Content note: period racism, sexism and ethnic prejudice, primarily from supporting characters.
Overall, an interesting and grounded look at intelligence work as it was done during World War One. This was one of the books that the Nazis studied when setting up their own spy apparatus! It’s also a good introduction to Maugham’s other work if you haven’t read him–Ashenden appears as a minor character in other stories set post-war.
There was a movie version with Peter Lorre(!) as the Hairless Mexican, but I can’t find it on Youtube, so here’s a bit from the BBC miniseries instead.
