The Naïve and Sentimental Lover
First edition
AuthorJohn le Carré
Cover artistTony Geddes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Published1971 (Hodder & Stoughton)
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages556 (large print)
ISBN9780792710059 Hardcover
823/.914 L456
LC ClassPR6062.E33 L43 1971
Preceded byA Small Town in Germany 
Followed byTinker Tailor Soldier Spy 

The Naïve and Sentimental Lover is John le Carré's sixth novel and his only non-genre (spy) novel.[2][3]

Background and plot

The novel follows Aldo Cassidy, a young entrepreneur. As the Penguin Random House webpage summarizes,[2] Aldo soon meets a "writer whose first and only novel blazoned across the firmament twenty years earlier. The two develop a passionate friendship that draws Aldo—smitten also with his new friend’s luscious wife—into a life of reckless hedonism that threatens to consume them all." The story has autobiographical elements, as it is based on the author's relationship with James and Susan Kennaway following the breakdown of le Carré's first marriage. The novel was published in the year of his divorce from Alison Sharp, his first wife.[4][5]

Reception and legacy

Upon its release, the novel was poorly reviewed by critics [3] The New York Times book review felt that by abandoning the spy novel, le Carre was not playing to his strengths. They wrote that "it isn't that le Carre is out of his depth here, or that he has lost his way with apposite atmospherics and scene‐settings; it isn't that his prose has surrendered its characteristic irony and tough precision. It is rather that he has chosen to relinquish his fundamental perception, to unhand the lever that lifted his tales—the truth that in this world of gray little men, gray little men shake the world."[6] In an interview in 1983, le Carre reflected on the novel's poor reception and how he responded in his career.[3] He told The New York Times: "I thought, they [the negative reviewers] were right. And if you can do one thing well, stick with it." After the failure of this novel, he returned to the spy genre and his most famous character George Smiley with the acclaimed Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and subsequent sequels in The Quest for Karla trilogy.

References

  1. ↑ Modern first editions - a set on Flickr
  2. 1 2 "The Naïve and Sentimental Lover A NOVEL By JOHN LE CARRÉ". Penguin Random House. penguinrandomhouse.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 MELVYN, BRAGG (13 March 1983). "A Talk With John le Carre". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "The Naive and Sentimental Lover by John le Carré". Goodreads. goodreads.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "THE NAIVE AND SENTIMENTAL LOVER by John le Carré". Kirkus Reviews. kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Wolff, Geoffrey. "All naked into the world of art". New York Times. Retrieved 31 December 2021.


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