The Arena (novel): Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Hayford Peirce
(added Snow)
imported>Hayford Peirce
(dunno if this is the right sort of lede, but it will do for the moment)
Line 4: Line 4:
{{Authors|Hayford Peirce|others=y}}
{{Authors|Hayford Peirce|others=y}}


'''The Arena''' is a 1961 suspense novel by the British author [[William Haggard]] published in England by [[Cassell]] and in the United States by [[Washburn]]. It was Haggard's third of 21 books involving his protagonist [[Colonel Charles Russell]], the head of the unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency, where he moves easily and gracefully along [[C.P. Snow|C.P. Snow's]] [[Corridors of Power (novel)|Corridors of Power]]. Like most of the other works by Haggard and some by his near contemporaries [[Victor Canning]] and [[Michael Gilbert]], it is both a standard novel of suspense and a semi-political thriller about the reactions of those in high government positions who scent potential danger to their own political standing from the on-going events of the novel.
'''The Arena''' is a 1961 suspense novel by the British author [[William Haggard]] published in England by [[Cassell]] and in the United States by [[Washburn]]. It was Haggard's third of 21 books involving his protagonist [[Colonel Charles Russell]], the head of the unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency, where he moves easily and gracefully along [[C.P. Snow|C.P. Snow's]] [[Corridors of Power (novel)|Corridors of Power]]. Like all of the other works by Haggard it is a standard novel of suspense, but combined, as usual with Haggard, with other elements: the reactions of those in high government positions who fear non-political events that could endanger Britain's place in the world, along with a tough-minded, even cynical depiction of financial shenanigans in the City of London.
   
   
==Plot==
==Plot==
Line 11: Line 11:
==References==
==References==
<references/>
<references/>
and some by his near contemporaries [[Victor Canning]] and [[Michael Gilbert]],

Revision as of 16:19, 3 October 2020

This article is developed but not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable, developed Main Article is subject to a disclaimer.
(CC) Photo: Clayton Evans
William Haggard on the back cover of The Conspirators, 1967
Authors [about]:
Hayford Peirce and others.
CZ is an open collaboration. Please
join in to develop this article!

The Arena is a 1961 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Washburn. It was Haggard's third of 21 books involving his protagonist Colonel Charles Russell, the head of the unobtrusive but lethal Security Executive, a government counter-intelligence agency, where he moves easily and gracefully along C.P. Snow's Corridors of Power. Like all of the other works by Haggard it is a standard novel of suspense, but combined, as usual with Haggard, with other elements: the reactions of those in high government positions who fear non-political events that could endanger Britain's place in the world, along with a tough-minded, even cynical depiction of financial shenanigans in the City of London.

Plot

Protagonist is perhaps too strong a word to describe Colonel Russell. As Haggard himself wrote about his fiction:

My novels are chiefly novels of suspense with a background of international politics. A Colonel Charles Russell of the Security Executive, a not entirely imaginary British counter-espionage organization, while not a protagonist in the technical sense, holds the story line together in the background by his operations, while the characters in the foreground carry the action."[1]

References

  1. From the back flap of the dust jacket of the Walker and Company American edition of The Conspirators, New York, 1967

and some by his near contemporaries Victor Canning and Michael Gilbert,