Reluctant Heroes, Ambivalent Patriots : Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and Middlebrow Leftist Thrillers 1932-1945 DOYLE, Christopher Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/25601/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/25601/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. Reluctant Heroes, Ambivalent Patriots : Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and Middlebrow Leftist Thrillers 1932-1945 Christopher Doyle A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2018 1 Table of Contents Introduction....................................................................................................................5 The Evolution of Popular Genres..........................................................................8 Defining the Espionage Novel.............................................................................14 The Pre-History of the Ambler-Greene Story.......................................................21 Chapter 1: ‘a little mild mental recreation from the stern realities of war’ : Disenchantment and Transformation in the Espionage Fictions of Sapper, Somerset Maugham and Compton Mackenzie.............................................................................28 Introduction.........................................................................................................28 Bulldog Drummond intervenes............................................................................33 1928: Disenchantment in Culture and in Espionage Fiction................................48 Conclusion..........................................................................................................61 Chapter 2: Varieties of Anti-Capitalist Literary Criticism in the 1930s: The Scrutiny Movement and Left Review..........................................................................................66 Introduction.............................................................................................................66 Scrutiny...................................................................................................................67 Minority Culture...................................................................................................67 Fiction and the Reading Public...........................................................................70 The Politics of Scrutiny.......................................................................................75 Left Review..............................................................................................................78 Left Review’s Fellow Travellers................................................................................85 Ralph Fox...........................................................................................................87 Christopher Caudwell..........................................................................................89 Alick West...........................................................................................................93 Mass Fiction: The Anxiety of Contamination............................................................97 Agreements and Alternatives..............................................................................99 Conclusion........................................................................................................110 Chapter 3: ‘This imbecile game of snakes and ladders’: Heroism, Generic Competence and Leftism in Eric Ambler’s Espionage Thrillers........................................................113 Introduction.......................................................................................................113 The Parodic Hero in The Dark Frontier..............................................................116 Zaleshoff, Leftist Hero.......................................................................................120 Countering Zaleshoff: Alternatives to Heroism..................................................132 Situating Amblerian Leftism...............................................................................143 Armaments, Anti-Capitalism and Espionage Fiction..........................................151 Conclusion........................................................................................................157 Chapter 4: ‘it's the books you've read which really give you away’ : The Intertextual Complications of Greene’s Thrillers............................................................................160 Introduction............................................................................................................160 Tentative Thrillers (1932-1935)..............................................................................163 The War Thrillers (1936-1943)...............................................................................169 A Gun for Sale...................................................................................................169 The Confidential Agent......................................................................................176 The Ministry of Fear..........................................................................................184 Conclusion.............................................................................................................189 Conclusion.................................................................................................................197 Bibliography...............................................................................................................202 2 Acknowledgements This doctoral thesis owes everything to my parents, whose support and patience are seemingly infinite. Writing this thesis, global politics and my personal life tried their damnedest to distract and waylay me, but my parents were there every time to set me back on the right track, just as they always have been. I’d also like to thank Caroline and Edd, for always refuting my negativity, along with all the other friends and colleagues who have offered support or succour along the way. My thanks also go to my supervisor, Professor Chris Hopkins, who was unfailingly positive and kind throughout the project, and to the other staff at Sheffield Hallam who helped me through, especially Dr Robbie Aitken and Professor Antony Taylor, who probably have no idea how important their support was to the successful completion of this thesis. In addition, I extend my thanks to my external examiner, Dr Sabine Vanacker, and my internal examiner, Professor Antony Taylor, for assessing the completed thesis, offering insightful comments and feedback, and for making the entire examination process a genuine pleasure. 3 Abstract This study considers how the genre of espionage fiction evolved in the period 1932-1945. It undertakes this consideration by focussing on the espionage fictions of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene in this period, as examples of a genre in a process of rapid change. The thesis shows how the evolving form of these fictions was influenced by their authors’ interactions with political questions which at this time were growing ever more urgent. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One discusses theories of how genres evolve and then specifically considers how the overall category of the crime story underwent dramatic change in the early twentieth century, leading to a separation between detective fiction and other kinds of crime story, including the espionage novel (Introduction), before further discussing the evolution of the espionage novel specifically by examining the direct ancestors of Ambler and Greene’s espionage novels in the 1920s (Chapter 1). Part Two unpacks how the vanguard of literary criticism in this period, represented by the journals Scrutiny and Left Review, reacted to mass cultural forms such as the espionage novel, as well as discussing how generally progressive theories of society in this period were blind to the potential of mass cultural forms to contribute to progressive change (Chapter 2). Part Three involves separate analyses of the works of Ambler (Chapter 3) and Greene (Chapter 4). Chapter 3, which concentrates on Ambler, looks at how his transformation of the espionage novel was heavily influenced by Popular Front politics and strongly motivated by a primarily anti-fascist aesthetic. Chapter 4, which concentrates on Greene, looks at how his espionage fictions were pre-occupied in self-reflective reconstruction of the very genre they occupied, and how this reconstruction is expressive of a political perspective. 4 Introduction if you excite your audience first, you can put over what you will of horror, suffering, truth. - Graham Greene, The Pleasure-Dome: the Collected Film Criticism: 1935-401 The situation in which a person, imagining fondly that he is in charge of his own destiny, is, in fact, the sport of circumstances beyond his control, is always fascinating. -Eric Ambler, The Mask of Dimitrios2 This thesis aims to explore how the early espionage novels