victoriaknow's review
4.0
A reminder of why I love Somerset Maugham so much. It's more a series of episodes or interlinked short stories than a novel. They deal with the experiences of Ashenden, an Englishman and writer who becomes a spy during the first world war as his profession, cool head and abilities with languages put him in an excellent position for being effective in such a post. The book starts off with fairly unremarkable assignments, passing on information and investigating certain people for example, and then the work grows in difficulty and significance as the book goes on. Some of the later episodes seems a little over-romanticised and weren't quite as believable. The part about Ashenden falling in love seemed particularly laughable, but in the end it seemed like an excuse to be a bit sarcastic about women and relationships anyway.
It's an interesting glimpse into the work (in those days) of the secret service and what it was like to work as a spy. You would only ever know about your part in a long chain of sending and receiving information, and often have no idea about the end result, so some of the episodes are rather dissatisfying, leaving you with a sense of "...but what happened then?", but that's the whole point, because as a spy you'd almost never know what the end result was.
Ashenden is a sort of shy and inhibited James Bond character. He generally keeps his wits and is a good actor to boot. Most interestingly he is quite removed from his situation and assignments, feeling neither burning patriotism nor fear about the dangerous nature of his work, but rather seeing it as an opportunity to learn more about the world and about human nature. He treats the whole thing as a jolly game, in stark contrast to many of the deeply earnest characters he meets along the way. I often feel a deep affinity with Somerset Maugham's protagonists, perhaps because many of the things he mentions and discusses are so universal that many people could relate, or perhaps his characters tend to be people that I can relate to in particular.
As always, Somerset Maugham manages to introduce some startlingly clear observations on human nature, in particular a brilliant speech about human vanity (see my favourite quotes) and an exemplary tale about not being scared to seize the moment and go for what you want. Bravo!
It's an interesting glimpse into the work (in those days) of the secret service and what it was like to work as a spy. You would only ever know about your part in a long chain of sending and receiving information, and often have no idea about the end result, so some of the episodes are rather dissatisfying, leaving you with a sense of "...but what happened then?", but that's the whole point, because as a spy you'd almost never know what the end result was.
Ashenden is a sort of shy and inhibited James Bond character. He generally keeps his wits and is a good actor to boot. Most interestingly he is quite removed from his situation and assignments, feeling neither burning patriotism nor fear about the dangerous nature of his work, but rather seeing it as an opportunity to learn more about the world and about human nature. He treats the whole thing as a jolly game, in stark contrast to many of the deeply earnest characters he meets along the way. I often feel a deep affinity with Somerset Maugham's protagonists, perhaps because many of the things he mentions and discusses are so universal that many people could relate, or perhaps his characters tend to be people that I can relate to in particular.
As always, Somerset Maugham manages to introduce some startlingly clear observations on human nature, in particular a brilliant speech about human vanity (see my favourite quotes) and an exemplary tale about not being scared to seize the moment and go for what you want. Bravo!
vintagehexe's review
4.0
Ashenden is a collection of short stories inspired by Maugham's work as a spy during WWI. Even though it differs greatly from what you would expect of an Espionage novel I enjoyed it. Most of the action is quiet scheming, travelling and persuading. Ashenden himself is a very fascinating character. He differs from short story to short story, can be very gentle and forgiven and incredibly cold. His relationships to women caught my eye in particular. He can be very harsh and sexist at times (this book was written in the 20s after all), but he values intelligence and has a mature view on beauty. Even though occasions of racism and sexims can be found in this book, they are mostly not coming from Ashenden, but rather making him quite uncomfortable. Ashenden also has social anxiety, which seems quite paradox when you remember he is a spy. He doesn't pride himself on sleeping around like you might expect from a spy like James Bond.
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