{"id":332945,"date":"2025-08-10T10:58:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T10:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332945\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T10:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T10:58:14","slug":"death-and-war-in-eric-amblers-supremely-stylish-spy-thriller-journey-into-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332945\/","title":{"rendered":"Death and war in Eric Ambler\u2019s supremely stylish spy thriller, \u2018Journey into Fear\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cIn case of danger\u2026 In case! But you couldn\u2019t get away from danger! It was all about you, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Published only a year into the Second World War, Eric Ambler\u2019s 1940 spy thriller Journey into Fear<\/a> foregrounds the fear of unknowability rather than the actual act of injury. This would have been true for most people during such a distressing time \u2013 the impending doom feels much bigger, sinister than the sporadic acts of violence they are subjected to. When death is fated, it is the cursed moments leading up to it that cause the most agony.<\/p>\n

Graham has a \u201chighly paid job\u201d at Messrs Cator and Bliss, a \u201cbig\u201d armaments manufacturing concern in England. Needless to say, even \u2013 especially \u2013 in troubled times, business is booming and he has been sent to Turkey on work. We first meet Graham on his final night in Istanbul as he prepares to leave for home on a train the next morning. Business successfully secured, his local companion, Kopeikin, takes him out for drinks and dancing at a city nightclub. Graham reluctantly agrees, citing an early start the next day. But he feels grateful for not turning down the offer when Kopeikin introduces him to Josette, the main attraction of the evening. A dancer, she and her husband\/partner Jose, are also all set to sail to Paris the next morning. Initially taken in by her charm, Josette will become Graham\u2019s confidante as he tries to elude his killer.<\/p>\n

Chasing the killer<\/p>\n

Returning to his hotel room, Graham finds an intruder, who shoots him but he escapes, with just a graze. What Graham mistakes for a botched burglary attempt is not so. The local intelligence chief, Colonel Haki, clarifies that it was an attempt to murder. The Germans want him dead \u2013 it\u2019s the time of war, and the Turks buying British arms isn\u2019t good news. Graham refuses to believe him \u2013 he\u2019s just a man doing his job, he has no enemies, why would anyone want him dead? Naturally, the shot rattles him and for the first time, he truly comes to fear death. What he had taken for granted as a consequence of old age or some terrible illness had suddenly become real \u2013 so real, that he had almost touched it. But there is a delirious quality to Graham\u2019s fear, and during a strange wartime, can anyone be trusted to speak the truth? The question, therefore, remains: Will Graham be killed?<\/p>\n

He is advised to avoid the train and take Sestri Levante, a passenger steamer to Paris, from where it\u2019d be arranged for him to depart for England. The steamer is hardly a haven \u2013 his fears are not eliminated but somewhat assuaged by the interesting company he finds onboard. There\u2019s a Turkish businessman who sells cigarettes, an elderly German archaeologist, a quarrelling French couple, and of course, Jose and Josette who pose as Spaniards. The long days on the sea allow for hearty conversations and close observations. He warms up to Kuvetli, the Turkish businessman, engages in productive debates with Haller about civilisations and history, and flirts fruitfully with the beautiful Josette.<\/p>\n

\"\"Author Eric Ambler.Patriotism in wartime<\/p>\n

The steamer is a world unto itself with passengers of various nationalities rocking together on choppy waters. The tension of the war brings out the patriots in them and each of them is ready to defend their national pride. The most zealous amongst them are the French, who are loath to have a German amongst them. Haller insists he\u2019s a \u201cgood German\u201d and not deserving of their contempt. But as the threats of his murder persist, Graham reflects on the \u201cbusiness of death\u201d \u2013 his personal fear versus the great tragedy of the war. For someone like him, who has much to profit by selling instruments of death, he coldly observes that \u201clife and death\u201d were at the mercy of \u201can elementary arrangement of springs and levers and a few grammes of lead and cordite.\u201d Away from the theatrics of the ongoing war, the German contemplates the nature of patriotism \u2013 its futility and hypocrisy. He correctly points out that no one wishes to be killed and that patriotism in effect is a \u201cruling class [wishing] a people to do something which that people does not want to do.\u201d It is not the common man who gains anything from cheering for war, but the banker who fills up his coffers no matter the outcome, the real war criminals. It is here that Ambler bluntly puts forth his anti-establishment views. There is no disillusionment about its ugliness even when you are on the winning side.<\/p>\n

On the steamer, Graham is forced into exaggerated actions and reactions. With insufficient information imparted to him, Graham is in a constant state of high alert. Any unexplained occurrence takes the shape of mortal danger. Ambler is supremely stylish in devising the drama of Graham\u2019s isolation. As the real identities of the passengers begin to emerge, once again Graham\u2019s sanity comes into question. On the steamer, what were at first polite associations sour into imposing obligations, with each twist revealing maddening possibilities. What Ambler writes halfway through the book, \u201cThe essence of all good strategy is simplicity,\u201d proves itself true when the journey \u2013 Graham and the novel\u2019s \u2013 concludes.<\/p>\n

Journey into Fear was adapted into a movie of the same name by Norman Foster and the inimitable Orson Welles in 1943, with some minor changes in the ending. Though not one of Orson Welles\u2019s best, the movie does a convincing job of bringing Ambler\u2019s extraordinary cast of characters to life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Journey into Fear, Eric Ambler, Penguin Modern Classics.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn case of danger\u2026 In case! But you couldn\u2019t get away from danger! It was all about you,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,12004,77,119380,119381,119382,119385,119384,24939,119383,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-332945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-books-and-ideas","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-eric-ambler","12":"tag-eric-ambler-journey-into-fear","13":"tag-journey-into-fear-eric-ambler-review","14":"tag-journey-into-fear-review","15":"tag-orson-welles-journey-into-fear","16":"tag-second-world-war","17":"tag-spy-thriller","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115004119753979769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}