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I removed the section that just told about other people's quotes and reviews of the book. This is an encylopedia not Amazon where one posts a review, even if it's a review by a famous critic, that's opinon not facts 63.26.212.132 ( talk) 17:02, 14 September 2008 (UTC)eric
As the film has been split from the book I've removed the film infobox. -- Shimbo 10:31, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
I chuckled when I read in the article that Leamus’s seedy alcoholism and cynicism was an antidote to the image of James Bond as the “perfect English gentleman”. I am old enough to remember the buzz surrounding the publication of Ian Flemming’s novels and the films based on them. In those more shockable days, Bond was regarded as anything but a gentleman. He had the sexual morals of an alleycat, and the sheer scale of his promiscuity was something not found in earlier spy literature, where spies tended to be dowdy and furtive. This makes sense, for a spy should hardly be drawing attention to himself by constant displays of lechery. The other factor that shocked early audiences was Bond’s sadism, and his nonchalant attititude to assassination and murder, and also the notion that the British Government gave certain agents the licence to kill at will. Times have changed so much that it is Bond now who is the “perfect English gentleman”, and no one bats an eye at the notion of a hero who does not fight by Queensbury rules, nor at the concept of the double O agents’ “licence to kill”. Myles325a ( talk) 02:36, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
On a related matter, I think the article is incorrect to state that "whereas Leamas’s world features love as a problematic". In Fleming's work, Bond's fear of love is a running theme, especially in the later novels after his wife has been murdered by Blofeld. Also, Bond's character does degenerate morally over time, until he becomes a tool similar to Leamas. Basically, I think there is actually more in common between Bond and Leamas than either character is given credit for. ( Benthec ( talk) 09:32, 27 December 2009 (UTC))
Who is Marcus Eklund? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.219.20.157 ( talk) 08:28, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
"It is not entirely clear which side in the Cold War had Liz and Leamas killed" - I disagree with this statement having just finished the book. It is clear to me that the death of Liz Gold was arranged by Mundt, especially as the method with which the wall should be scaled was detailed to Leamas (he should go first) - and that Liz could be lifted by him. The only reason, IMHO that Leamas was shot was that he descended on the Eastern side to check on her and had he not have been shot at this point, suspicion may have been raised for Mundt Gamesetmatch ( talk) 20:40, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
This quote is especially interesting since -- if the WP page on Le Carre is to be believed -- it was Philby that ended the writer's career as a spy in the first place. Cattishness on Philby's part, perhaps? I can't think how to add the relevant information to the quotes section, though. 78.150.255.71 ( talk) 16:33, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
"Very disappointing. It was a relief to read a somewhat sophisticated spy-story after all that James Bond idiocy, and there are some well-thought out passages. But the whole plot from beginning to end is basically implausible, and the implausibility keeps on obtruding itself — at any rate, to anyone who has any real knowledge of the business!" ( Kim Philby) (From "Kim Philby: The Spy I Loved", 1967, Eleanor Philby)
I removed the description of Liz as Jewish [1]. At one point, the novel mentions that "she used to go to church" [2]. It's true that when he meets her, Leamas guesses she is Jewish, and perhaps some of the East German characters assume she is Jewish, but that mention of her having attended church is definitive. Mathew5000 ( talk) 10:09, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
I notice you have been keeping a watching brief on this article and are doing a good job of keeping the plot section on track. To my eyes, however, that section was much too long and, in the final para, too dramatically written. I have tried to slim down the outline, clearing it of redundancy and too much fussy detail. Ideally it could do with losing another hundred words, but that is probably impossible in view of the complication of the plot. I thought I would contact you to explain my thinking and leave future edits in your capable hands. Mzilikazi1939 ( talk) 21:30, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
The changes to the lead were reversed by Gareth Griffith-Jones and that action seems to disregard all stylistic guidelines on the purpose of a lead section, which is to sum up what is in the body of the article. The fact that a poll of readers of a couple of publications placed the novel quite high is hardly of encyclopaedic significance. I had moved mention of the polls down to the Cultural Impact section, but they don't warrant inclusion in the lead. Added to which, the Publishers Weekly did not say that this was "the greatest spy novel of all time", that was some brainless editor's interpretation. Finally, there's mention of the 1965 film in the Awards and Nominations section. The fact of film adaptation might just be noteworthy enough for mention in the lead, but not who directed or appeared in it, which properly belongs in the article on the film. It's redundant in the lead of an article on the book. Mzilikazi1939 ( talk) 19:56, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:The Spy Who Came in from the Cold/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
Much more could be said about this novel - quite influencial in its day. Still classed a Stub but of High significance in its genre. |
Last edited at 11:21, 4 July 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 08:25, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
This quote was added in May 2009 by an IP user, with incomplete bibliographic information (the bibliographic information, but not the quote itself, has somehow been removed from the article over the past seven years).
I am unable to find any independent evidence of Ms Compton, her alleged essay "Is Common Human Decency a Scarce Commodity in Popular Literature?", or the volume ("Essays on Moral Philosophy and Literature", ed. Theodore Brown, 1972) in which the essay is said to have been originally published. Perhaps a longstanding hoax or joke? Grover cleveland ( talk) 03:54, 9 July 2016 (UTC)
Isn't come in a phrasal verb, thus requiring in to be capitalized in the title? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.223.46.150 ( talk) 07:33, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
In chapter 8 Leamas is flown to "the airport" at The Hague - the problem being that The Hague does not have an airport. I can't discover that Ypenburg airfield ever hosted commercial flights, and Rotterdam airport has only recently added "The Hague" to its name. So is this a simple failure of research by Le Carré? TobyJ ( talk) 08:27, 15 April 2018 (UTC)