311-] English Literature
John Gardner
John Gardner
Born: November 20,
1926
Birthplace: Seaton
Delaval, Northumberland, England
Died: August 3, 2007
Place of death:
Basingstoke, England
Types of Plot: Comedy
caper; espionage; master sleuth; police procedural
Principal Series:
Boysie Oakes, 1964-1975; Derek Torry, 1969-1974; Professor Moriarty, 1974-1975;
Herbie Kruger, 1979-1995; James Bond, 1981-1996; Sergeant Suzie Mountford,
2002-2005
Contribution
John Gardner
specialized in taking over characters created by other writers. By presenting
characters such as James Bond and Dr. Moriarty in his own way, Gardner added an
extra dimension to his novels: The original characters remain in the reader’s mind,
available for comparison with Gardner’s versions. Gardner also pioneered the
practice of including comic elements in the standard mystery, effectively
creating a new genre. His work shows great attention to historical detail and
more than a touch of the occult. Gardner’s professionalism and ability to
imitate other writers’ styles helped him, particularly in his James Bond
novels. However, his own stylistic sense was better than that of Ian Fleming ,
so his stories read somewhat differently. Nevertheless, he retained Fleming’s
readers and handed the series over to other writers after illness forced him to
abandon it. His books have been translated into more than fourteen languages.
Biography
John Edmund Gardner
(not to be confused with literary scholar John Champlin Gardner, Jr.,
1933-1982) was born on November 20, 1926, in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland,
England. He developed an interest in writing very early and at the age of nine
told his father he wanted to be a writer. His progress toward that goal,
however, was hardly direct. After wartime service in Britain’s Royal Navy in
the latter part of World War II and as a commando with the marines in 1946, he
graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge University, in 1950. He decided to
follow his father into the Anglican priesthood and was ordained in 1953.
Meanwhile, in 1952, he married Margaret Mercer, with whom he had two children.
Gardner developed doubts about whether he had followed the right calling and
eventually left the priesthood in 1958. He then worked as a theater critic and
art editor for a Stratford-on-Avon newspaper for six years.
Gardner came to
realize that he wanted to write books of his own rather than to remain a
critic. After writing a nonfictional work discussing his alcoholism, he became
a mystery novelist. He won popularity immediately with his Boysie Oakes series,
but his career did not really blossom until 1981, when he was selected to
continue the James Bond series, more than fourteen years after Ian Fleming
died. At first, he contracted to write three books to bring Bond into the late
twentieth century. However, his contract was repeatedly renewed because of the
success of his books. He himself said that Bond was too much of a fantasy
character for his liking, but his professionalism carried him through sixteen
Bond novels, some of which were novelizations of screenplays.
While writing the
Bond novels, Gardner moved to the United States and then to Ireland. However,
the onset of cancer in 1995 and the death of his wife in 1997 brought him back
to Great Britain. After major surgery, he survived the cancer, and after a gap
of some five years, resumed writing. He began a completely new series, set
during World War II, with Suzie Mountford, a female police sergeant, as the
series lead. He imagined her as a middle-class woman thrown into a world of
crime and men by the demands of the war. The first novel of the series, Bottled
Spider, was published in 2002. He continued to work hard until 2006, when a
serious stroke stopped him from writing once again. He died on August 3, 2007,
in Basingstoke, England.
Analysis
Although adept at
creating original characters, John Gardner devoted much of his career to
mysteries that developed the characters of other detective writers. Ian
Fleming’s James Bond ranks foremost among those that Gardner used for his own
purposes. Bond plays the principal role in two of Gardner’s series, the first
using the name Boysie Oakes and the second explicitly continuing the original
Bond novels. Another character Gardner adopted is Dr. Moriarty, the greatest
antagonist of Sherlock Holmes. Not all Gardner’s work, however, was variations
on themes by other writers. He also wrote a number of espionage novels—one
trilogy in particular earned wide recognition because of its detailed picture
of life in England during World War II.
Ian Fleming’s James
Bond novels appealed to audiences in the 1950’s in part because of their
ruthless but suave and sophisticated hero. Although Fleming took Bond very
seriously, certain elements of his stories readily lent themselves to parody.
Gardner made apt use of these elements in his Boysie Oakes series, beginning
with The Liquidator (1964).
The Boysie Oakes
Series
In his first Boysie
Oakes novel, Gardner paints an easily recognizable character. Oakes, also known
as “L,” works as a professional killer for the Department of Special Security.
Unlike most members of his profession, he fears violence and hires others to do
his killing for him. As if this were not enough, Oakes also cannot stand flying.
In the Oakes series, which eventually numbered eight novels, the plot usually
matches the principal character in absurdity. In Understrike (1965),
Oakes—nervous, inept, and forgetful as always—goes on a mission to observe the
test of a Russian submarine. The Russians quickly catch on and send a duplicate
of Oakes, an agent of their own, to substitute for the real Oakes. As usual,
Gardner’s hero somehow muddles through.
Many of the Oakes
novels illustrate a feature that appears often in Gardner’s work. He depicts
sexual scenes very graphically. In the Oakes novels, this subject becomes an
occasion for humor: Oakes overcomes his habitual indolence for extended
exercises in lechery, often with Miss Chicory Triplethrust.
A Complete State of
Death
Readers who viewed
Gardner as a skilled parodist and comic mystery writer soon learned that his
talents extended far beyond this rather minor genre. In A Complete State of
Death (1969), he introduced Inspector Derek Torry of Scotland Yard. Unlike
Oakes, Torry is a very serious character. To him, crime stands as a personal
enemy, and he is consumed by his hatred of it. Interrogations often end with
Torry losing his temper and slugging his suspects. He does this not because he
is cruel but because he becomes too involved. Torry, a conservative Roman
Catholic, also finds himself troubled by religious doubts. Some people see in
Torry a reflection of Gardner himself. Gardner, however, denied that Torry
mirrored his own problems and viewed with hostility attempts to read his novels
as autobiography.
Although Gardner
intended A Complete State of Death and his other Torry novel, The Corner Men
(1974), as comments on criminal violence and its malevolent effects, the author
found his taste for the bizarrely humorous difficult to abandon. In the former
novel, for example, the plot centers on a school for aspiring criminals run by
a character whose manner resembles that of an English university teacher. The
aristocratic head of the school is, for all of his apparent good breeding, an agent
of the Crime Syndicate who operates with ruthless efficiency.
The Return of
Moriarty
Gardner soon returned
to novels featuring another writer’s character. In The Return of Moriarty
(1974), Gardner began a popular series that features the main antagonist of
Sherlock Holmes. According to Gardner’s series, Moriarty, like Holmes, survived
their famous showdown at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Moriarty, portrayed
as a professor, has returned to London in an effort to control all crime in
Europe.
Although the Moriarty
novels do not boast the fine character portrayal of the Torry stories, they
make evident another key feature of Gardner’s work: Gardner took great pains to
depict accurately the background for his stories. He showed in his Moriarty
series an impressive knowledge of Victorian England. He neglected almost
nothing in his efforts toward realism: He knew Victorian criminal slang, for
example, and informed the reader what diners in restaurants of the time were
likely to order for dinner.
The Werewolf Trace
With The Werewolf
Trace (1977), yet another one of Gardner’s interests came into full view. He
had a detailed knowledge of World War II, dating back to his own service in the
Royal Navy. The horrors of Nazism and the fears that Adolf Hitler aroused among
the British people form the backdrop to this novel.
Its
characteristically unusual plot concerns a nine-year-old boy who may be a
survivor of the last hours of the Third Reich. If so, it is likely that the boy
is being groomed for the role of Werewolf, the British code name for the future
leader of any attempt to revive the Nazi empire. Although from this description
one might suspect that a farce is in the offing, Gardner in fact intended his
novel to make serious points. These concern the bad effects of technology, the
evils that result from unmanageable obsessions, and the need for privacy. The
Werewolf Trace also illustrates Gardner’s interest in the occult. The house in
which the alleged future Führer lives has been visited by ghosts that have arisen
from a mysterious killing of another little boy.
The Kruger Trilogy
Gardner’s occultism
was not something that he placed in his stories to satisfy a whim. On the
contrary, he artfully blended elements of the occult into his works to add to
the feeling of mysterious terror. This use of the occult is a principal feature
of The Nostradamus Traitor (1979) , the first volume of a trilogy whose main
character is a German-born British intelligence officer named Herbie Kruger.
Here the occult lies
at the center of the novel. As the title suggests, the prophecies of
Nostradamus, a sixteenth century French astrologer, serve as the book’s
leitmotif. They enabled Gardner to tie together events in Great Britain and
France in 1940/1941 with later developments in London in the 1970’s. Although
the connection between Nostradamus and the first Allied agent to penetrate
German-occupied France might seem tenuous, in Gardner’s skilled hands astrology
evoked the eerieness of the Third Reich, through the interest of Hitler and
Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in that subject.
Herbie Kruger, the
agent featured in The Nostradamus Traitor, was one of Gardner’s favorite
characters. Gardner carefully depicted his personality in The Garden of Weapons
(1980), the second volume of the Kruger trilogy. Kruger is highly nervous,
sexually impotent, and in his own eyes a failure. He comes out of his gloom
only when listening to the music of his favorite composer, Gustav Mahler. In
this novel, the plot, while skillfully woven, takes second billing to the
depiction of Kruger. The story is about an espionage network set up in East
Berlin that may have been infiltrated by a double agent. In the novel, Kruger
recalls his troubled past as a child living in wartime Berlin.
The first two volumes
of the trilogy, along with the final volume, The Quiet Dogs (1982), illustrate
an aspect of Gardner’s work that became increasingly prominent. He offered a
detailed picture of the way an espionage agency works. The interplay between
the “masters,” the leaders of the intelligence agencies who manipulate men like
chess pieces, and the agents, who carry out orders without knowing their real
purposes, fascinated Gardner. One of his later novels, The Secret Generations
(1985), made the mechanics of espionage its chief theme. This work traces a
British and an American family, both of which have long-standing connections
with the intelligence services of their country, through three generations of
involvement in spying.
License Renewed
Gardner did not
become a real star among mystery writers until License Renewed (1981). He had
been selected by Gildrose Publications, which held the copyright to the James
Bond novels, to continue Ian Fleming’s immensely popular series, and this was
his first Bond novel. Gardner’s novels in the Bond series won for him a wide
audience and celebrity status. His James Bond differs from Fleming’s: Even
though he was hired to continue the series, he produced no slavish imitation of
the original 007. The new Bond is conscious of Earth’s limited resources and
carefully avoids using too much gasoline. Also, although Gardner was not
writing a parody of Bond, a few Boysie Oakes details appear from time to time.
In License Renewed, a thirty-foot-long python removes the shoes of its victims
before eating them, and the story’s villains plan to seize an American defense
command station by using ice cream to flood the soldiers guarding it.
Many critics did not
like the new Bond; although Gardner had generally received good reviews from
critics during his career, the Bond novels were an exception. Most of Gardner’s
critics contended that he had failed to capture the spirit of the true Bond.
They found his style too arch and sophisticated, unsuited to the simplicity of
Ian Fleming’s original. When Gardner attempted to imitate Fleming’s style, to
some reviewers the result was awkward prose.
This criticism is
somewhat surprising. Although Gardner had not concentrated on his style before
the Bond series, it had almost always been considered accomplished and engaging.
He had shown remarkable skill in the evocation of historical events, and his
plotting was highly intricate. If, in the light of his previous success, the
criticism of the Bond series surprised Gardner, it is unlikely that it
disturbed him very much. Some critics did like the Bond books, and numerous
readers did also. Without a doubt, the Bond series brought Gardner much
commercial success.
Troubled Midnight
Troubled Midnight
(2005), the fourth novel of the Suzie Mountford series, is set, as are all the
books in the series, in wartime Great Britain. Shortly before Christmas, 1943,
two badly battered bodies are found in a quiet town in southern England. Suzie
is assigned the case under Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Livermore, who
is her secret lover. They are joined by an operative from Intelligence, because
one of the victims has details of the forthcoming Normandy landings. Gardner
thus combines police work with the kind of undercover plot with which he is
most at home.
Principal Series
Characters:
Boysie Oakes , a
parody of Ian Fleming’s James Bond, is a lazy and lecherous espionage agent who
hires others to do his killing for him. He is inept, forgetful, and afraid of
airplanes.
Derek Torry , a
Scotland Yard inspector of Italian descent, takes crime personally and reacts
angrily to criminals. He suffers from religious crises of conscience. His
conservative Roman Catholic beliefs often inhibit his efforts at romance and
make him self-doubtful.
Professor Moriarty ,
created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a leading antagonist of Sherlock Holmes
who has the personality of an English university teacher. His efforts to bring
all major European crime under control rarely result in confrontation with
Holmes.
Herbie Kruger , a
German-born British intelligence agent, considers himself a failure. He is
devoted to Gustav Mahler’s music and, like many Gardner characters, is
thoroughly neurotic.
James Bond , the
famous Agent 007 created by Ian Fleming, has been revived by Gardner. The new
Bond differs from the original in being interested in conservation. He is also
more sophisticated and faces villains who are often not mere stock figures of
evil.
Suzie Mountford is a
female detective who operates during World War II and has to fight her way
through male chauvinism in the police force as well as to sort out the
mysteries of the working class.
Bibliography
Broyard, Anatole.
“James Bond Revised.” Review of Icebreaker, by John Gardner. New York Times,
April 9, 1983, p. 1.17. Negative review of Gardner’s continuation of the Bond
series. Finds Gardner’s prose awkward when compared with Fleming’s smooth
style.
Bryant, Bobby. “James
Bond 00-50: After Half a Century, Novels Are at a Crossroads.” Times Union,
September 14, 2003, p. J4. This discussion of the James Bond novels after Ian
Fleming’s death notes that the series was continued first by Kingsley Amis,
then Gardner, and finally Raymond Benson (1997-2002). Gardner states that he
feels the series should no longer be continued.
Hitz, Frederick P.
The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
2004. This work contrasts fictional espionage with that in the real world.
Although it does not discuss Gardner’s work, it does discuss some of Fleming’s
and sheds light on Gardner’s Bond novels.
Melton, Emily. Review
of Bottled Spider, by John Gardner. Booklist 99, no. 2 (September 15, 2002):
209. Reviewer finds the first book in the Suzie Mountford series, which is
about a serial killer, to be suspenseful and well paced and to provide a good
sense of London in World War II.
Wright, David. Review
of Troubled Midnight, by John Gardner. Booklist 102, no. 12 (February 15,
2006): 50. Review of the fourth entry in the Suzie Mountford series about the
murders of an air-force colonel and his lover finds the work filled with period
details. Compares the work to that of Helen MacInnes.
