The Russia House.

LE CARRE, John [Sean Connery].

Item Number: 121492

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989.

First edition of le Carre’s classic novel, basis for the film starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page to fellow writer Alan Furst, “For Alan from David* * aka John le Carre.” The recipient Alan Furst has been called “an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene,” whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. Most of his novels since 1988 have been set just prior to or during the Second World War and he is noted for his successful evocations of Eastern European peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944. Furst called le Carré’s “Karla trilogy, the very best of the Cold War spy novels. Le Carré’s voice — patrician, cold, brilliant and amused — was perfect for the wilderness-of-mirrors undertow of the Cold War, and George Smiley is the all-time harassed bureaucrat of spy fiction.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. Photograph by Franta Provaznik. An exceptional association copy.

The title The Russia House refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union. The motion picture based on the novel was released in 1990, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, and directed by Fred Schepisi.