Order of John Le Carre Books
Despite the French pen name, novelist John le Carre wasabout as British as the Union Jack. He was a former British intelligence officer who started writing spy fiction in the early sixties. Due to his past as a foreign officer, le Carre was unable to publish books under his real name of David Cornwell. Unlike the James Bond series, le Carre’s protagonists are more ambiguous and his spy novels are more psychological than about physical action.
Le Carre passed on December 12, 2020.
Although John le Carre has written the George Smiley series, he mostly wrote standalone novels and had not published a series novel since 1990. Several of le Carre’s works have been adapted for film, television and radio. The most recent is the 2011 adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (with the commas dropped for the film title) starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley. Below is a list of John le Carre’s novels in order of when they were originally published:
Publication Order of George Smiley Books
|
Call for the Dead |
(1961) |
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|
A Murder of Quality |
(1962) |
|
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold |
(1963) |
|
|
The Looking Glass War |
(1965) |
|
|
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy |
(1974) |
|
|
The Honourable Schoolboy |
(1977) |
|
|
Smiley’s People |
(1979) |
|
|
The Secret Pilgrim |
(1990) |
|
|
A Legacy of Spies |
(2017) |
Publication Order of The Karla Trilogy Books
|
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy |
(1974) |
|
|
The Honourable Schoolboy |
(1977) |
|
|
Smiley’s People |
(1979) |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
|
A Small Town in Germany |
(1968) |
|
|
The Naive and Sentimental Lover |
(1971) |
|
|
The Little Drummer Girl / A Death in the Family |
(1983) |
|
|
A Perfect Spy |
(1986) |
|
|
The Russia House |
(1989) |
|
|
The Night Manager |
(1993) |
|
|
Our Game |
(1994) |
|
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The Tailor of Panama |
(1996) |
|
|
Single & Single |
(1999) |
|
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The Constant Gardener |
(2001) |
|
|
Absolute Friends |
(2003) |
|
|
The Mission Song |
(2006) |
|
|
A Most Wanted Man |
(2008) |
|
|
Our Kind of Traitor |
(2010) |
|
|
A Delicate Truth |
(2013) |
|
|
Agent Running in the Field |
(2019) |
|
|
Silverview |
(2021) |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
|
Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn? |
(2016) |
Publication Order of John le Carr Short Story Collections
|
Sarratt and the Draper of Watford |
(1999) |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
|
The Pigeon Tunnel |
(2016) |
|
|
A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré |
(2022) |
Publication Order of Anthologies
|
The Book of Spies: An Anthology of Literary Espionage |
(2003) |
|
|
Not One More Death |
(2006) |
|
|
Ox-Tales: Fire |
(2009) |
Note: The collection Ox Tales: Fire also contains contributions by Geoff Dyer, Sebastian Faulks, Mark Haddon, Victoria Hislop, Vikram Seth, Lionel Shriver, Ali Smith, William Sutcliffe, Jeanette Winterson and Xiaolu Guo.