A Murder of Quality (George Smiley Series Book 2)

by John Le Carré

What a shame, thought Fielding, that a mind so perceptive of beauty had no talent for creation.

I imagine a lot of educated people carry this burden, in particular those who teach Arts and Literature.

Smiley himself was one of those solitaries who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colourful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country’s enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed.

Perfect summation of Smiley (from what I've read so far)