''Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel'' (1966), by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

, is an English espionage novel. Burgess conceived it as a reaction both to the heavy-handed and humourless spy fiction of

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...

, and to

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, 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., and his ...

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

, a character Burgess thought an imperialist relic. The subtitle "An

Eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...

Spy Novel" refers to Burgess's idea of the Cold War as a hostile symbiosis, an "ultimate conflict" for which

Good and Evil In philosophy, religion, and psychology, "good and evil" is a common dichotomy. In religions with Manichaeism, Manichaean and Abrahamic influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic cosmology, dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which ...

are inadequate terms. In Burgess's view the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

and the

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

formed a

yin and yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

-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 s ...

morning when his hand began shaking and his wife said, "That is

tremor of intent ''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's James Bo ...

." 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 sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...

. 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, William Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, Englan ...

, 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 Etchingham is a village and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district of East Sussex in southern England. The village is located approximately southeast of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent and northwest of Hastings, on the A265 road ...

, 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 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

journeys to the city of Yarylyuk aboard the passenger ship ''

Polyolbion The ''Poly-Olbion'' is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton (1563–1631) and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598. ...

'', on a mission to infiltrate a conference of Soviet scientists and return to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

with his childhood friend Roper, who has defected to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. En route Hillier meets the sexually precocious sixteen-year-old Clara, the voluptuous

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

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 {{1960s-spy-novel-stub