ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by trying to outline the genre of the spy thriller and its formulas. It examines this pervasive commonsense opposition in the section on realism. The second opposition is made between types of protagonists, sometimes between amateurs and professionals, at other times between heroic adventurers and cynical or confused muddlers. Then the chapter turns to the relations of consumption, the question of the reading public. The chapter deals with realism and the thriller for two reasons: first, because almost all critics of the thriller have at some point reached for the label of 'realism' in the course of their explanations, and second, because much of the socialist and Marxist debate about popular culture has focused on the ideological meaning and function of realism. The new 'thrillers' or 'shockers' were read in three main forms: as single-volume hardcover novels rented from circulating libraries, as short stories in the magazines and story papers, and as serials in the popular press.
