ABSTRACT
The analysis of The Night Manager (1993) and of The Constant Gardener (2000) shows that, after 1989, English spy fiction author John le Carré has been mainly exploring the deterioration of British honourability caused by villainous upper-class British men. In his post-Cold War novels, le Carré’s heroic, gentlemanly amateur spies stand up to corrupt patriarchal, patrician fellow countrymen. Jonathan Pine fights arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper in The Night Manager, whereas Justin Quayle embarks on a crusade against the big pharmas and the political ‘labyrinth of monstrosities’ which they sustain in The Constant Gardener. Le Carré, however, builds their chivalrous male heroism on a questionable foundation: the death of a damsel in distress that is qualified enough to play the role of hero. This is a fundamental weakness in le Carré’s romantic tales of British male heroism and villainy.
