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)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Murder of Quality (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Looking Glass War (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Smiley's People (1979)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Secret Pilgrim (1990)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Legacy of Spies (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of The Karla Trilogy Books

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Smiley's People (1979)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

A Small Town in Germany (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Naive and Sentimental Lover (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Little Drummer Girl / A Death in the Family (1983)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Perfect Spy (1986)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Russia House (1989)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Night Manager (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Our Game (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Tailor of Panama (1996)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Single & Single (1999)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Constant Gardener (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Absolute Friends (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Mission Song (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Most Wanted Man (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Our Kind of Traitor (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Delicate Truth (2013)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Agent Running in the Field (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Silverview (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn? (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of John le Carr Short Story Collections

Sarratt and the Draper of Watford (1999)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Pigeon Tunnel (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré (With: Tim Cornwell) (2022)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Publication Order of Anthologies

The Book of Spies: An Anthology of Literary Espionage(2003)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Not One More Death(2006)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Ox-Tales: Fire(2009)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

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.

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Order of Books » Authors » Order of John Le Carre Books

One Response to “Order of John Le Carre Books”

  1. Louis Henry: 3 years ago

    RIP

    Reply

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