Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War (1914–18), when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure (The Prisoner of Zenda, 1894, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905), the thriller (such as the works of Edgar Wallace) and the politico–military thriller (The Schirmer Inheritance, 1953, The Quiet American, 1955).
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Famous quotes containing the words spy and/or fiction:
“Living, just by itselfwhat a dirge that is! Life is a classroom and Boredoms the usher, there all the time to spy on you; whatever happens, youve got to look as if you were awfully busy all the time doing something thats terribly excitingor hell come along and nibble your brain.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (18941961)
“Coincidence is a pimp and a cardsharper in ordinary fiction but a marvelous artist in the patterns of facts recollected by a non-ordinary memorist.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (18991977)