Spy fiction

Spy fiction is a literary genre built around espionage, using it as a central setting or plot mechanism. The genre first appeared in the early 1900s, fueled by the rivalries and secret dealings of the great powers and the rise of modern intelligence services. It gained momentum with the spread of communism and fascism before World War II, evolved through the Cold War, and was later revitalized by new dangers to Western societies, including rogue states, international crime syndicates, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy, and high-tech sabotage. Thematically, spy fiction shares ground with adventure novels (like *The Prisoner of Zenda* and *The Scarlet Pimpernel*), thrillers (such as those by Edgar Wallace), and politico-military thrillers (like *The Schirmer Inheritance* and *The Quiet American*).

The earliest known spy story, according to commentator William Bendler, appears in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Joshua, where spies sent into Jericho recruit the harlot Rahab as an ally—a plot point that predates James Bond by three millennia.

The genre began taking shape in the 19th century. James Fenimore Cooper’s *The Spy* (1821) and *The Bravo* (1831) are early examples. *The Bravo* criticizes European anti-republicanism by portraying Venice as a city ruled by a ruthless oligarchy hiding behind a mask of serenity. In France, the Dreyfus Affair (1894–99) stoked public fascination with espionage. For about twelve years, this scandal—involving international betrayal, treason, and antisemitism—dominated French politics and was covered by the global press. Details like a German agent selling French military secrets and a French charwoman rifling through German embassy trash inspired successful spy fiction. Even Sherlock Holmes took on espionage: in “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty,” he retrieves a stolen secret treaty between Britain and Italy, and in “His Last Bow,” he works as a double agent feeding false information to Germany on the eve of World War I.

In the early 20th century, spy stories focused on the colonial powers’ rivalry in Asia, the looming war in Europe, domestic threats from revolutionaries and anarchists, and historical romance. Rudyard Kipling’s *Kim* (1901) revolves around the Anglo-Russian “Great Game” for control of Central Asia. Joseph Conrad’s *The Secret Agent* (1907) explores the psychology of a revolutionary cell, where a diplomat from a Russian embassy forces a double agent to bomb the Greenwich Observatory to frame the revolutionaries. Conrad’s *Under Western Eyes* (1911) follows a reluctant Russian spy infiltrating revolutionaries in Geneva. G. K. Chesterton’s *The Man Who Was Thursday* (1908) uses the infiltration of an anarchist group as a framework for a metaphysical exploration of power and suffering. Sherlock Holmes also hunted spies for the British government in “The Adventure of the Second Stain” (1904) and “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans” (1912), and acted as a double agent in “His Last Bow” (1917). *The Scarlet Pimpernel* (1905) by Baroness Orczy features an English aristocrat rescuing French nobles during the Reign of Terror.

The term “spy novel” was defined by Erskine Childers’ *The Riddle of the Sands* (1903), in which two British yachtsmen stumble upon a German invasion plan while cruising the North Sea. Its success spawned a wave of invasion literature, with William Le Queux and E. Phillips Oppenheim becoming prolific but low-literary-quality authors in the genre from 1900 to 1914.

During World War I, John Buchan emerged as the leading British spy novelist, portraying the conflict as a clash between civilization and barbarism. His notable works include *The Thirty-nine Steps* (1915) and *Greenmantle* (1916), featuring the hero Richard Hannay. In France, Gaston Leroux published *Rouletabille chez Krupp* (1917), where detective Joseph Rouletabille engages in espionage.

After the Russian Revolution, the interwar spy story often focused on combating the “Red Menace,” seen as another clash of civilizations. British authors, many of them former intelligence officers, dominated the period. W. Somerset Maugham’s *Ashenden: Or the British Agent* (1928) offers a realistic portrayal of spy work from the inside.