''Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel'' (1966), by
Anthony Burgess, is an English espionage novel.
Burgess conceived it as a reaction both to the heavy-handed and humourless spy fiction of
John le Carré, and to
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
'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
In religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology "good and evil" is a very common dichotomy. In cultures with Manichaean and Abrahamic religious influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which good shoul ...
are inadequate terms. In Burgess's view the
Soviet bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
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
A hangover is the experience of various unpleasant physiological and psychological effects usually following the consumption of alcohol, such as wine, beer, and liquor. Hangovers can last for several hours or for more than 24 hours. Typical sy ...
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.
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. The British first edition, published by
William Heinemann
William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London.
Early life
On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...
, 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."
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.
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
A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
Miss Devi and the shadowy tycoon Theodorescu.
References
External links
Anthonyburgess.org
Novels by Anthony Burgess
1966 British novels
British spy novels
Heinemann (publisher) books
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