The Arena (novel): Difference between revisions
imported>Hayford Peirce (→References: can't find any reviews except of the flap of the book itself, which is sort of cheating) |
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Although Russell remains in the background for much of the book, he is nevertheless seen more often than in his first two appearances. In the previous book, he was sixty and supposedly about to retire; in '''Arena''', however, no mention is made of this. His invaluable assistant from the first book, Major Mortimer, now with a first name (Robert), reappears and is in almost every scene in which Russell appears, frequently disagreeing with him about what course of action should be taken. The plot itself is relatively simple: a British company has made developments in the fields of radar and electronics that will be valuable assets for the country. They have, however, borrowed money from a old-time private bank in the City, in order to finance this development. An unscrupulous, and highly murderous, Swiss financier is aware of this situation and determines to take over first the bank that make the loan, and then the company itself, thereby gaining control of the technological developments. The British government becomes aware of this and directs Colonel Russell to make sure that this plan is thwarted. Much of the book is then devoted to the character of two or three of the people most involved with the various family-owned private banks that are central to the plot. Class background and bitter jealousies because of them are important elements, as in many of Haggard's books, and although perhaps trivial in nature lead to murderous outcomes. One of the families involved has a deep Italian background and so the action moves from England to Italy and back and finally ends with a deadly dénouement on the island of [[Capri]]. The outcome is highly successful from Russell's in one sense but only if the human cost is not reckoned. From that standpoint, his interventions have been bleak, grim, and unrewarding. | Although Russell remains in the background for much of the book, he is nevertheless seen more often than in his first two appearances. In the previous book, he was sixty and supposedly about to retire; in '''Arena''', however, no mention is made of this. His invaluable assistant from the first book, Major Mortimer, now with a first name (Robert), reappears and is in almost every scene in which Russell appears, frequently disagreeing with him about what course of action should be taken. The plot itself is relatively simple: a British company has made developments in the fields of radar and electronics that will be valuable assets for the country. They have, however, borrowed money from a old-time private bank in the City, in order to finance this development. An unscrupulous, and highly murderous, Swiss financier is aware of this situation and determines to take over first the bank that make the loan, and then the company itself, thereby gaining control of the technological developments. The British government becomes aware of this and directs Colonel Russell to make sure that this plan is thwarted. Much of the book is then devoted to the character of two or three of the people most involved with the various family-owned private banks that are central to the plot. Class background and bitter jealousies because of them are important elements, as in many of Haggard's books, and although perhaps trivial in nature lead to murderous outcomes. One of the families involved has a deep Italian background and so the action moves from England to Italy and back and finally ends with a deadly dénouement on the island of [[Capri]]. The outcome is highly successful from Russell's in one sense but only if the human cost is not reckoned. From that standpoint, his interventions have been bleak, grim, and unrewarding. | ||
==Reception and/or Appraisal== | |||
Reviews were mixed: | |||
<blockquote>Christopher Pym, ''The Spectator'', date unknown: A sad falling-off after Mr. Haggard's admirable first attempt with Slow Burner. | |||
</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>''The New York Times'': In VENETIAN BLIND (Washburn, $2.95), William Haggard effectively draws a larger-than-life engineer-tycoon, a modern magnifico who lives in the grand manner unoppressed by codes and conventions. When such a man is concerned in the British quest for negative gravity, the problems of the Security Executive are obviously acute. International malefactions and private motives for murder combine to make a quiet, colorful, intelligent thriller.<ref>Anthony Boucher, ''Criminals at Large'', ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1960 at [http:///timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/01/24/119094050.html?pageNumber=139]</ref></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>Anthony Cronin, ''Times Literary Supplement'', date unknown: (I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfaction about their milieu — in this case cabinet level top-security and millionaire industrialist high-life — and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation. The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable.</blockquote> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
Revision as of 17:09, 3 October 2020
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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. And like Venetian Blind (novel), Haggard's previous book, it is very much a novel of character.
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]
Although Russell remains in the background for much of the book, he is nevertheless seen more often than in his first two appearances. In the previous book, he was sixty and supposedly about to retire; in Arena, however, no mention is made of this. His invaluable assistant from the first book, Major Mortimer, now with a first name (Robert), reappears and is in almost every scene in which Russell appears, frequently disagreeing with him about what course of action should be taken. The plot itself is relatively simple: a British company has made developments in the fields of radar and electronics that will be valuable assets for the country. They have, however, borrowed money from a old-time private bank in the City, in order to finance this development. An unscrupulous, and highly murderous, Swiss financier is aware of this situation and determines to take over first the bank that make the loan, and then the company itself, thereby gaining control of the technological developments. The British government becomes aware of this and directs Colonel Russell to make sure that this plan is thwarted. Much of the book is then devoted to the character of two or three of the people most involved with the various family-owned private banks that are central to the plot. Class background and bitter jealousies because of them are important elements, as in many of Haggard's books, and although perhaps trivial in nature lead to murderous outcomes. One of the families involved has a deep Italian background and so the action moves from England to Italy and back and finally ends with a deadly dénouement on the island of Capri. The outcome is highly successful from Russell's in one sense but only if the human cost is not reckoned. From that standpoint, his interventions have been bleak, grim, and unrewarding.
Reception and/or Appraisal
Reviews were mixed:
Christopher Pym, The Spectator, date unknown: A sad falling-off after Mr. Haggard's admirable first attempt with Slow Burner.
The New York Times: In VENETIAN BLIND (Washburn, $2.95), William Haggard effectively draws a larger-than-life engineer-tycoon, a modern magnifico who lives in the grand manner unoppressed by codes and conventions. When such a man is concerned in the British quest for negative gravity, the problems of the Security Executive are obviously acute. International malefactions and private motives for murder combine to make a quiet, colorful, intelligent thriller.[2]
Anthony Cronin, Times Literary Supplement, date unknown: (I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfaction about their milieu — in this case cabinet level top-security and millionaire industrialist high-life — and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation. The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable.