The Day of the Jackal (1971) is a thriller novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French dissident paramilitary organization, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.
The novel received admiring reviews and praise when first published in 1971, and it received a 1972 Best Novel Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The novel remains popular, and in 2003 it was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.
While the OAS did exist as described in the novel, and the book opens with an accurate depiction of the attempt on the life of President de Gaulle led by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, the subsequent plot is fiction.
Read more about The Day Of The Jackal: Film Adaptations, References To Historical Persons, Places or Events, Future Influences
Famous quotes containing the word day:
“Some people are like ants. Give them a warm day and a piece of ground and they start digging. There the similarity ends. Ants keep on digging. Most people don’t. They establish contact with the soil, absorb so much vernal vigor that they can’t stay in one place, and desert the fork or spade to see how the rhubarb is coming and whether the asparagus is yet in sight.”
—Hal Borland (1900–1978)